It couldn’t have ended any better for senior catcher Stephanie Correia.
In the final at-bat of the final inning of her final Cal Poly season, she rode a 1-0 pitch to right field to bring home Rebecca Romano — ending what had been a season filled with losses with an extra-inning 9-8 win Saturday.
It was the only victory the Mustangs had against Pacific. They lost both games of Friday’s doubleheader in extra innings. Cal Poly fell 6-4 in 10 innings in the first matchup, and 9-8 in eight innings in the second game.
Rebecca Patton started game one of the doubleheader and pitched seven innings, giving up five earned runs off 14 hits. She struck out one and walked two as she picked up the loss.
Offensively, the Mustangs rallied in the bottom of the seventh. They went into the inning trailing by four runs, but after RBIs from Anna Cahn and Patton and a costly Pacific error, Cal Poly came out of the inning tied.
It stayed that way until the 10th inning, before two RBI-doubles gave Pacific a 6-4 lead. The Mustangs couldn’t answer in the bottom of the inning, as they started the series with a loss.
In the second game, the Mustangs got off to a quick start. Patton and right fielder Nicole Lund gave Cal Poly a 2-0 lead in the first, and Correia brought home two more in the second to take a 4-1 advantage.
Pacific came back with its biggest response in the fourth, scoring four total runs off two bases-loaded walks and a two-RBI single from Pacific’s Nikki Armagost. The Tigers’ rally cut their deficit to 6-5, but they weren’t done scoring yet.
The Tigers added one run in the fifth and one in the sixth to take the 7-6 lead.
Cal Poly fought back in the bottom of the sixth, with Lund bringing in two runs off a double down the left field line to get back on top, 8-7.
But Pacific tied it in the seventh, and scored a go-ahead run in the eighth en route to the victory.
Lund led the Mustangs offensively. She went 4 for 4 with four RBIs, while Correia went 3 for 4 with two RBIs against the Tigers.
The performance led well into Sunday, as Correia and Cahn were honored as seniors and made their presence felt.
Cahn started and gave up five earned runs off 12 hits, giving her a win in the final game of her Cal Poly career. She finishes the season 2-12 and 50-46 for her career.
Behind Cahn, Cal Poly scored five runs through the first two innings. Romano hit a two-run home run to center, and Shea Williams and Whitley Gerhart both drew bases-loaded walks.
The Mustangs added another run in the second, when Romano homered again, to take a 5-1 advantage.
The Tigers cut the deficit to 5-4 with a three-run sixth inning, and tied it in the seventh off an Alexa Rivera single up the middle.
But in the eighth, Correia ended Cal Poly’s season on a winning note. The team finished the season 11-36 and 7-14 in Big West play.