BRISBANE, Calif. – Academy of Art University and Hawaii Pacific played two very different softball games out at Mission Blue Field on Wednesday. The Sharks scored 11 runs over the first two innings of the opener and went on to win 13-3 in five innings, but the Urban Knights responded by holding HPU's offense to a single hit in a 3-0 victory with freshman pitcher
Hannah Rose Balke (12-5) in the circle for game two.
GAME 1 – HPU 13, ART U 3 (5)
Right out of the gate, three hits and four walks to composed a six-run first inning for Hawaii Pacific. And although the Knights got one run back in the bottom half of the inning on sophomore utility
Juliana Lopez's advancement home on a failed double steal attempt, HPU added five more in the second including Brazzlyn Tovio-Asato's grand slam.
In the second inning, freshman catcher
Ryia Grant muscled a two-run single to give Academy of Art some life and make it 11-3, however, the fourth saw the Sharks' advantage balloon to 13-3 and that margin would remain through five innings to trigger the run-rule.
GAME 2 – ART U 3, HPU 0
Epitomizing the Knights' bounce-back from game one, Balke pitched a gem in the finale. After an error allowed the first batter of game two to reach base, the freshman retired 12 of the next 13 Sharks she faced, striking out four in that span. Meanwhile, ART U worked collectively to put up lone runs in the first, third, and fourth innings.
A leadoff double by freshman infielder
Gracie Sotomayor turned into a run on senior outfielder
Jessica West's groundout in the first then freshman outfielder
Gabi Hirsch doubled to start the second and came around on Lopez's groundout. Finally, in the fourth, sophomore infielder
Brenna Youngquist roped a one-out double to right, reached third on a groundout, then junior infielder
Samantha Klune plated her with a single.
Balke would strike out one batter in each of her final three innings of work, pitching through her lone walk in the fifth and an error in the sixth. In the seventh, however, she worked with her defense to retire the Sharks in order, finishing off the 3-0 victory.
The Knights' seventh split of the season puts them at 15-17 overall and 9-11 in PacWest action. Balke finished game two with the one hit allowed plus one walk and seven strikeouts in her third shutout of the year. Six ART U players had at least one hit in each game, led by Hirsch's 4-for-4 performance and Youngquist's 3-for-3 day. In game one, Grant had two runs batted in then Lopez, West, and Klune registered one RBI apiece in the day's finale. Freshman infielder
Freddie Carrillo went 2-for-6 with hits in each contest and now sports a team-best 10-game hit streak.
Hawaii Pacific completes its Northern California PacWest trip with a 14-14 overall record and 7-11 in conference play. After Tovio-Asato ended the opener 1-for-3 with the grand slam and four RBIs, it was just Mari Kajiwara who had a hit in game two. Emiliee Leonard improved to 5-5 with a win after 4.0 innings and three runs allowed in the first contest while Alexa McCoin dropped to 3-2 with the game two loss after a complete 6.0 innings and three runs allowed.
ART U will now enter the Tournament of Champions in Turlock which will feature six different opponents over three days including Simon Fraser and Western Washington (Mar. 31), Western Oregon and Central Washington (Apr. 1), and Montana State Billings and Cal State Monterey Bay (Apr. 2).
