The University of Redlands softball team closed out the regular season with a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) doubleheader against the Cal Lutheran University Regals at the Field of Dreams on Sunday afternoon. Prior to the first pitch, the Bulldogs honored the respective accomplishments and contributions of their talented senior class of outfielder AJ Carrasco (Whittier, CA), infielder Vicki King (Thousand Oaks, CA), catcher Dani Santos (West Covina, CA), outfielder Grace Rose (Villa Park, CA), pitcher Lauren Henson (Highland, CA), and infielder Tori Santos (West Covina, CA). Despite the festive flair of the day, Redlands struggled to push runs across in the two games and suffered a pair of losses by scores of 1-6 and 1-2.
Down by three in the opening game, the Bulldogs put up their only run on a sacrifice bunt that was ruled an error on the throw during the bottom of the third. After sophomore third baseman Summer Smith (San Bernardino, CA) put the ball in play, Carrasco took advantage of opportunity and sprinted from second to home for the run. Redlands went on to load the bases that frame, as Rose and sophomore short stop Ursyla Baumgarten (Penngrove, CA) fired off singles during this stretch. However, a pair of successful fielder's choice plays kept the Maroon and Gray from scoring additional runs.
In the top of the seventh, Head Coach Dani Spaulding lifted Santos and Henson to allow them to exit the Field of Dreams one last time while being recognized by the crowd.
Henson was tagged with the loss after 6.1 innings of work. Freshman pitcher Jessica Doss (San Mateo, CA) came in as the reliever for the final two outs.
During the second game, Redlands faced an early two-run deficit, which led to an early pitching change. Freshman Mika Imoto (Vista, CA) settled things down for the Bulldogs, as she closed out the final five innings while giving up just two hits and no runs, and fanning three Regals.
Junior pinch-hitter Casey Maltz (Palo Alto, CA) stepped into the box in the bottom of the fifth and appeared to initiate a rally with her double to left field. Unfortunately, nothing came about due to back-to-back fly-outs.
With one out, King blasted a stand-up triple to right field to answer a tough call by the umpire in the previous play in the bottom of the sixth. Sophomore short stop Shannon Skrzynski (Pomona, CA) kept things rolling with her RBI-double to right center, plating King to make it a one-run ball game.
After the Regals' pitching change, the Bulldogs' scoring spurt came to an end.
The Bulldogs applauded Rose, King, and Carrasco, as they made their way to the home dugout one last time.
Freshman hurler Lindsey Mifsud (Belmont, CA) suffered the loss from the circle after a tough two-frame effort.
Rose and Skrzynski recorded the only multi-hit showings in game two, with Rose going 3-for-3 at the dish.
Redlands (26-14, 16-12 SCIAC) heads to the University of La Verne for the SCIAC Postseason Tournament as the No. 3 seed on Friday, May 6. The Bulldogs square off against No. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at a time to be announced.
