Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

Brisbane, CA – Academy of Art University Softball delivered Pacific West Conference victories six and seven with a two-game sweep of Dominican Saturday out at Mission Blue Field. The Urban Knights offered a dominant pitching performance by senior Kimberly Dauer (4-6) and capitalized on Penguin miscues to take a 3-0 win in the opener before erupting for eight runs in the sixth inning of game two to eventually pull out an 8-7 victory. Both team efforts with a variety of contributors, the wins helped keep ART U a perfect 16-0 historically against Dominican.

After pitching a clean first inning of game one, Dauer found herself in a jam in the second with the bases loaded and one out. However, a head's up play by junior Lauren Stover getting the forceout at home followed by a strikeout looking kept the Penguins from scoring.

Immediately thereafter in the second, senior Andrea Hanchey got a rally started for ART U with her leadoff single which was misplayed by the Dominican centerfielder, allowing Hanchey to reach third. Redshirt sophomore Jasmine Dickenson walked and then it was a double steal that the Knights executed for their first run of the day.

The Penguins committed a pair of errors in the third inning which enabled freshman Jessica Marin and, when ART U forced the issue again in the fourth, the result was one more run. Dickenson launched a one-out double to left and sophomore Kamyle Glover added a bunt single before another Dominican miscue brought Dickenson in. After four complete, Academy of Art led 3-0.

Dauer continued to come right at the opposition, retiring eight Penguins in a row across the fourth through sixth innings. Dominican started the seventh with a single and sacrifice bunt, but when faced with a pinch-hitter, Dauer struck her out swinging and got a flyout to end it with her team on top 3-0. Her shutout came as 7.0 innings pitched, four hits allowed, and six strikeouts.

Dominican wasted little time in its game two rebuttal. The Penguins went up 2-0 after three hits off sophomore Haily MacDonald (3-0) in the first then made it 3-0 with a suicide squeeze in the third. MacDonald and the Urban Knights were not fazed by the hot start, however, and proceeded to keep Dominican off the scoreboard for the next three innings.

In the final of those frames, the bottom of the sixth, Academy of Art saw its offense absolutely explode. Three consecutive singles at the top of the order set the table for Hanchey who promptly crushed an 0-1 pitch to right center for a two-run triple.

"I just told myself to hit it hard," Hanchey laughed. "I knew I had runners on so I thought even if they catch it I can still get runners in. I did and I hit it hard."

After a Dickenson sacrifice fly to score Hanchey, Glover singled then sophomore Talyor Thurman slammed the first pitch she saw into center for yet another RBI triple. Dominican changed pitchers at that point, but it did not stop the juggernaut. Senior Alyssa Hickey delivered a pinch-hit RBI single then freshman Andrea Gill pulled a RBI double to left. With MacDonald back at the plate for the second time in the inning, her RBI single brought in Gill and then junior Elyse Cordova went down the first base line for an RBI single of her own.

"We were running out of outs and knew what we had to do," Hanchey said. "We knew we had it in us and we took it to them."

When the dust had settled, the Knights had themselves an eight-run inning which tied the program's single-inning record set by this 2013 ART U squad earlier this year, set a new single-inning record with 10 hits, and most importantly, gave them an 8-3 lead.

"Our backs were definitely against the wall at that point and the team just made a decision: 'Hey, it's go-time!' and they all went," co-head coach Sami Strinz said. "You don't rely on one person and that's what makes it so nice because you take the pressure off of everybody. Everyone gets to be a part of it and that's a lot of fun."

The Penguins, on the other hand, still had one last comeback attempt of their own. Following two singles, an error which would have been the third out allowed both runs to score and then a Kayleigh Klingberg two-run home run quickly made it just an 8-7 advantage for the Knights. At that point, Dauer made her second appearance of the day, this time in relief, and posted a save on a strikeout to preserve MacDonald's third win of the season.

"Both Kim and Haily have been doing a great job for us and they're both extremely dependable," Coach Strinz said. "We're going to get a lot of ground balls from both of them and that just makes life easier. They give us quick and easy outs so we can keep the momentum on our side and they did a great job of just going right at batters today."

For Academy of Art, now 9-10 on the year and 7-3 in PacWest play, a bunch of players got into the offense with four different players registering hits and three scoring in the opener while eight different Knights hit and scored runs in game two. Hanchey finished the day 2-for-5 with two RBIs, two runs scored, and the second triple of her career. MacDonald and Cordova each posted 2-for-4 game two performances which featured one RBI and one run scored apiece. Glover went a combined 3-for-4 with a run scored while Hickey was 1-for-1 with a RBI in the second game and Gill was 1-for-3 with a RBI, run scored, and the double.

"To be doing this well in conference and to have taken a game from Cal Baptist, I really feel like we are unstoppable and I really believe in this team," Hanchey said.

Thurman added a triple in her 1-for-2 game two which included a RBI and run scored. Stover's hits in each game (1-for-3, 1-for-4) brought her up to an 11-game hit streak which ties the program record set by Cordova at the end of last season. MacDonald finished her start with 6.2 innings pitched and just three earned runs allowed.

"I think the girls' confidence is finally starting to match their ability and, for us as coaches, it's a lot of fun to watch," Coach Strinz said.

Dominican (4-12, 0-4 PWC) remains winless in conference play, but had had solid outings from Klingberg (1-for-5, HR, 2 RBI, R), Samantha Talavera (2-for-4, RBI), and Dominique Perry (1-for-5, 2 RBIs). Game one starter Karly Harris (3-6) went a full 6.0 innings with just one earned run allowed on four hits.

Academy of Art will be on the road but local next weekend when the Knights travel to Holy Names for an 11:00 AM doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 9.