By The Long Beach State softball team swept the first of back-to-back doubleheaders against Hawai’i, beating the Rainbow Warriors 10-2 and 8–1 Friday night in Honolulu.
The Big West Conference match up pitted the No. 2 vs. the No. 3 team in the league.
The first game was all offense as the the Beach scored seven times on three home runs in the second inning, led by senior outfielder Breezy Wise who started off the inning with a solo home run opposite field.
Junior outfielder Naomi Hernandez widened the lead in a big way, hitting a grand slam which was her first home run of the season.
Senior Alyssa Gonzalez capped the inning, going yard with a two-run shot to give Long Beach a 7-0 lead.
Hawai’i’s Britnee Rossi hit a sacrificial fly in the bottom of the third inning to put the Rainbow Warriors on the board 1-0.
The Beach took game one of the doubleheaders after the 8-run mercy rule took effect at the end of the fifth inning, giving senior pitcher Kellie White her 14th win of the season.
Hernandez picked up where she left off in game one, with an RBI in the top of the second, to give Long Beach an early lead.
Wise hit her second home run of the day with a solo shot in the top of the fourth.
Not to be outdone, Gonzalez, the second leading hitter in the conference, hit two more solo home runs in the fifth and seventh innings to give her seven for the season.
Junior Justine Briones put an emphatic stamp on the evening, hitting the second grand slam of the night to give Long Beach an 8-0 lead.
Sophomore pitcher Samantha Fowler turned in a dominating performance pitching a complete game, giving up one run, striking out 12 batters, while only giving up five hits.
The Rainbow Warriors’ only run came with two outs in the bottom of the seventh off a short fly ball that dropped into the outfield past the outstretched glove of shortstop Cam Cecil.
With the victories, Long Beach remains in second place in the Big West Conference behind the Titans of Cal State Fullerton.
Long Beach also won Saturday’s doubleheader against Hawai’i 17-9 and 15-3.
