BOX SCORE 1 | BOX SCORE 2

GAME ONE BOX SCORE  |  GAME TWO BOX SCORE


SEASIDE, Calif. — Sophomore third baseman Danielle Onken (Oakdale HS) may not hit the most home runs for the Otters in 2012, but she has a flair for the dramatic when she does hit one.

Sunday afternoon, for the second consecutive day, Onken blasted a walkoff homer to rally the No. 6 Cal State Monterey Bay softball team to a stirring 12–11 game two victory and a sweep of Humboldt State at the Otter Sports Complex.
CSUMB (22–4, 14–2 CCAA) also took an 8–0 (6 innings) win in Sunday's opener to sweep the series from HSU (8–17, 2–14).

Saturday's home run merely capped a 9–1 mercy rule win for the Otters. Sunday's was the stuff of legend. Trailing 9–2 at the midway point and 11–7 entering the seventh, the Otters appeared to be all but dead. But a pair of leadoff walks, a Jackie Serna (Corona HS) sac fly and a Nina Villanueva (San Diego/Mt. Carmel HS) two–out, RBI single set the stage for Onken, who turned Alyssa Castillo's 1–1 offering into a laser beam to dead centerfield.

The irony of Onken's home run was that the Lumberjacks appeared to wrest control of the game from the Otters via their own power surge. Solo homers by Alicia Reid in the first and Kirsten Nouzovsky in the second gave HSU leads of 1–0 and 2–1. When Courtney Hiatt's three–run blast capped a seven–run Humboldt fourth, the Lumberjacks led 9–2 and were well on their way to a much–needed win.

But even a seven–run lead can seem diaphanous when facing the potent CSUMB offense, and the Otters responded quickly. An RBI double by Jamie Moon (Torrance HS) highlighted a four–run fourth that got the Otters to within 9–6. By the seventh, however, the Lumberjack lead was back to four runs.

Walks to Angelina Orozco (Clovis East HS) and Skyler Valdivia (Beaumont HS) to open the bottom of the seventh set the table for the heart of the Otter order. A Moon fly ball and Serna's sac fly pushed one run across but left the Otters with just one out. Valdivia then made the hidden big play of the game, beating the throw to second on a Cori Reinhardt (Riverside Poly HS) grounder to short to keep the rally alive.

Villanueva followed by driving the first pitch she saw back up the middle to plate Valdivia and set the stage for Onken's big blast.

The dramatic game two victory overshadowed an impressive win in the opener in which CSUMB posted its seventh run–rule win of the second and second of the series. Reinhardt tossed a three–hit shutout while adding her NCAA–leading sixth triple and an inside–the–park home run to lead the Otters to the win.

Reinhardt finished the day 4–for–7 with four runs and three RBIs while lifting her current hitting streak to eight games. Villanueva added a pair of hits in each game—including two doubles in the opener—while increasing her hitting streak to seven games. Orozco, meanwhile, had a double and two RBIs in the opener before belting two triples and scoring four runs in the nightcap.

CSUMB will hit the road for a huge four–game series at No. 5 Cal State Dominguez Hills March 16–17. The Otters return home to face No. 9 Chico State Mar. 23–24 at the Otter Sports Complex.