Rain officially washed away three out of four games the Cal State Northridge softball team would have played in last weekend’s UCSB Commercial Capital Invitational.
Rain washed away any chance for the Matadors to come back from their opening game of the tournament.
“It was really disappointing because we wanted to play those games,” said head coach Barbara Jordan. “But you cannot control the weather.”
Down five runs in the first inning, CSUN came back to even the score against Tulsa in the fifth inning. CSUN, however, would suffer the loss in a rain-shortened game on Feb. 17 in Santa Barbara.
The Matadors were only able to record one official game during the weekend as matches against Long Beach State, San Diego State and Rider were canceled due to heavy rain and bad field conditions.
With the 7-5 defeat against the Golden Hurricanes, the Matadors lost for the fifth consecutive game, dropping their record to 1-5 for the season. Tulsa improved to 4-1 with the win.
CSUN’s offense finally came to life as its comeback started in the top of the fourth inning. Leading off, senior Jan Moshier singled and senior Janine Grund doubled to move Moshier to third. Freshman pinch-runner Sarah Kahn was sent in to replace Grund on second for the inning.
With no outs, senior Heather Martin singled in Moshier and Kahn to put the Matadors on the scoreboard. Sophomore Jackie Duree moved Martin over to second with a sacrifice bunt to record the first out in the inning. The next batter, senior Jamie Pederson, doubled in Martin to make it 5-3 Tulsa.
The Matadors also had momentum in the fifth inning, Moshier led off with a walk and moved to second as Grund followed with a single. Martin recorded the first out but Duree advanced the runners, executing another sacrifice bunt, moving Moshier and Grund into scoring position.
Pederson earned her second RBI of the game when she singled to left to score Moshier to cut the lead to 5-4. Tulsa’s Maren Genow then threw a wild-pitch to sophomore Aubrey Fast, which brought in the tying run.
Tulsa, however, responded and recorded the final runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. An RBI double by Sara Dyer and an RBI single by Kelli McGlasson put Tulsa up 7-5.
Rain ended the remainder of the game in the top of the seventh inning as Grund, leading off, had received a 3-0 count.
Tulsa’s 5-0 advantage in the first inning was orchestrated by Dyer, who hit a three-run homerun as well as RBI singles by Jessica Barr and Lindsay Galloway.
Junior Sam Schroeder allowed all five runs in a third of an inning. Freshman Selena Salazar pitched the rest of the game and recorded the loss. Salazar pitched well, striking out six batters, going four and two-thirds innings before giving up two runs in the sixth inning.
“We’re being reactive,” Jordan said. “We’re waiting to see what the other team does and we then come back. We need to be the ones who take action first.”
The Matadors will play their home-opener when they host Southern Utah on Feb. 23 at noon and Nevada on Feb. 24 at 1 p.m. Both games will be played on Matador Diamond.
Arthur Vong can be reached at sports_sundial@csun.edu
