The University of Redlands softball team opened Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) competition on Saturday by welcoming the Whittier College Poets to the Field of Dreams for a doubleheader. After giving up big first innings, the Bulldogs worked to claw their way back but ultimately fell by one run in each contest, 2-3 and 4-5.
In the opener, the Poets jumped on the board with a three-spot in the top of the first, forcing the Maroon and Gray to play catch-up.
Sophomore pitcher Lindsey Mifsud (Belmont, CA) immediately settled down, and proceeded to scatter only three hits while allowing no runs for the remainder of the game.
The Bulldogs battled to get their offense going, with sophomore second baseman Hayley Romo (Port Orchard, WA) blasting a single up the middle in the bottom of the second. She moved all the way to third after stealing second and advancing on junior first baseman Ursyla Baumgarten's (Penngrove, CA) single through the right side. Unfortunately for the home team, the Poets' defense stepped up with back-to-back outs to end the inning with two runners left on base.
Senior third baseman Summer Smith (Redlands, CA) began to chip away at Redlands' deficit with a solo shot over the right-center fence to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning. Baumgarten did her best to keep the inning alive with a double down the right-field line but to no avail.
In the bottom of the sixth, junior catcher Lali Garza (Granite Bay, CA) roped a shot to left field, where the Whittier player tipped it off her glove, which allowed senior center-fielder Amanda Ang (Santa Cruz, CA) to score from second base to make it a 2-3 ball game.
The Bulldogs' final chance came in the seventh, when freshman designated player Nicole Stanzione (San Marcos, CA) singled to right field to start things off. However, the Poets took care of business by retiring the next three batters with the tying run left on base.
During the night cap, the plot was very similar, as Whittier cranked out five, first-inning runs to put the Bulldogs in an early hole. From here, sophomore pitcher Mika Imoto (Vista, CA) dispersed only four hits and no runs over the next six frames.
Redlands once again looked to Smith to step up with the team's first run of the game, as she unleashed a two-run shot over the left-field fence in the bottom of the third.
The Maroon and Gray kept battling, as Ang roped a double down the left-field line to score Imoto, who had moved to second on a single and a Poet miscue.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Bulldogs appeared to be making moves toward additional runs with two hits and a runner on second. But a pair of quality defensive plays by Whittier kept Redlands off the board.
The Bulldogs tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth, with Smith squeezing a double right past the third baseman to plate junior short stop Shannon Skrzynski (Pomona, CA), who had poked a single and moved to second on a fielder's choice.
Smith led the Maroon and Gray with a 3-for-6 day at the plate that resulted in two runs and four RBI.
Redlands (2-6, 0-2 SCIAC) takes to the road to face Chapman University in a conference twin bill on Friday, March 3, at 2 p.m. in Orange.