The Mustang softball team played 20 games on the road to kick off its 2012 campaign — and rain washed out six more — before Cal Poly returned to San Luis Obispo last weekend. The team owns a 7-18 record after it dropped five games in the Mustang Classic from Friday to Sunday, moving its losing streak to seven in a row. The team starts Big West play Saturday against Cal State Fullerton.
Cal Poly opened the home part of its schedule in a double-header against Lipscomb and Ball State on Friday where the Mustangs dropped one-run affairs. The game was scoreless until the top of the sixth when Lipscomb’s Haley Elliot drove a pitch over the left field fence. The Mustangs responded with a run of their own with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the sixth. Lipscomb scored the winning run in the final frame with a one out single that bounced through the gap between shortstop and second base.
Against Ball State, Cal Poly jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Celina Lafradas that brought Madi Vogelsang home. The lead was short lived as Ball State tied the game in the second and went ahead for good in the fourth on an RBI single that raced through the left side of the infield. Cal Poly eventually fell 4-3.
Pitchers Jordan Yates and Chloe Wurst, both freshmen, tossed back-to-back complete games in the two losses.
The Mustangs dropped two games to Ball State and Lipscomb again on Saturday but managed to score seven runs in the double-header. Junior center fielder Whitley Gerhart hit her first career home run against Ball State, a solo-shot to left field. However, it wasn’t enough as the Cardinals scored seven runs in the first two innings then tacked on runs in the third and fourth frames.
The team concluded the Mustang Classic with a 4-1 loss to UNLV (17-14) on Sunday afternoon. Wurst shut down the Rebels for four innings, allowing just one hit, but yielded runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings before Yates relieved her.
Wurst now owns a 2-9 record on the season. Kim Westlund drove in Nora Sobczak with a two-out single for Cal Poly’s only run of the day. The Mustangs return to Bob Janssen Field for two games this afternoon against UCLA.
First pitch comes at 1 p.m., and the second game will start shortly after the first game concludes. Cal Poly begins its conference schedule with a double-header against Cal State Fullerton starting at noon on Saturday.