By The Long Beach State softball team wrapped up its first tournament of the season with a 5-3 loss to Utah in the SoCal Collegiate Classic on Sunday morning at the 49er Softball Complex.
The 49ers (3-2) started the season-opening tournament strong, winning their first the three games against Sacramento State (2-1), Northwestern State (0-4) and Utah (2-3) by a combined score of 16-1. Head coach Kim Sowder said was happy with how starters Amanda Hansen and Christina Clermont pitched.
“If you want anyone to have a good day it’s the person in the circle,” Sowder said. “They really led the way for our team. They made it a little bit easier on our defense. I thought we played really good defense our first game. We made a couple mistakes in the first game, but Amanda did such a nice job of getting out of it.”
The 49ers had some success on base paths. They created more scoring opportunities with their ability to steal bases; they were a perfect four for four on stolen base attempts.
“We try to be aggressive as much as we can,” Sowder said. “[I don’t like] getting the first out at third base, but we’ll be aggressive, especially with certain parts of our lineup. We have a little bit more speed.”
Sophomore right-hander Christina Clermont made her 49er debut Friday against Sacramento State, pitching five shutout innings in the 8-0 win. Sowder said Clermont’s fastball was as good as when she saw her in fall 2014.
“She’s got a variety of different pitches and can hit all her zones,” Sowder said. “She did a really nice job.”
Clermont said it felt awesome getting her first win for LBSU and she was excited to be a part of the team.
“Our team really came out strong,” Clermont said. “We were super amped for the game. We performed like we should’ve and we’re all happy with it.”
Sophomore catcher Lauren Lombardi said she wasn’t surprised by the weekend’s results. She said she was glad to see all the team’s hard work pay off and come together.
“We really don’t seem to missing a beat,” Lombardi said. “We lost a lot of key players from last year, but even the freshmen are stepping and it’s awesome to see.”
The 49ers struggled in their last two games. They lost 8-7 in extra innings against Idaho State (1-4) on a walk-off home run by Kristen Williams on Saturday before dropping Sunday’s finale against Utah 5-3.
“[Utah] really had good pitching,” Lombardi said. “I think it just got into our heads a little bit. We played really well the last couple of days. We need to stay level. We can’t get too confident or too cocky. We’ll come out stronger and regroup from this.”
Sowder said the team’s youth and inexperience led to several defensive miscues against the Utes. She said the team’s mistakes cost them at least three runs, which ultimately was the difference in the game.
After Hansen struggled to get batters out in the first inning, Sowder made a quick pitching change against the Utes. Hansen lasted only an inning, giving up four hits and two earned runs. Sowder said she didn’t feel like it was a good matchup for LBSU.
“I thought they made adjustments and we didn’t,” Sowder said. “They were kind of on to Amanda. We have six pitchers, so we need to find out where they are. We’re going to need to use them. It was an opportunity for us to use our bullpen.”
The 49ers hit the road for their next tournament. They head to Las Vegas for the Easton Desert Classic, which starts on Friday.
