LA VERNE, Calif. — Alexis Schiff homered twice, Katherine Kibbe and Hayley Jaquess dominated in the circle and the University of La Verne softball team swept the doubleheader against Occidental at Campus West on Friday evening.
La Verne improves to 15-15 overall and 10-8 in SCIAC play. Occidental falls to 6-22 and 3-15.
Game 1: La Verne 6, Occidental 2
With two runners on in the first inning, Schiff lifted a first pitch fastball over the left field fence for a three-run homer and that was all the Leopards would need in a 6-2 win.
And Jaquess (5-4) had the strikeout pitch working throughout and picked up her fifth win of the season. The sophomore fanned career-high 10 batters as she went all seven innings while giving up two runs on eight hits.
The Leopards executed a successful first-and-third double steal in the second inning to go up 4-0. With speedy Danielle Vela and Raeleen Tellez at first and third, respectively, La Verne head coach Julie Smith called a double steal to bring Tellez home. The Tigers seemed to have snuffed out the attempt but catcher Alex Battest tried to get Tellez heading back to third and overthrew the third baseman, allowing Tellez to come home.
La Verne tacked on two more insurance runs in the fourth inning with three consecutive two-out doubles.
Game 2: La Verne 8, Occidental 0 (6 inn.)
Kibbe threw a complete-game one-hitter, Schiff hit another homer and the Leopards beat Occidental, 8-0, in the second game.
Kibbe (8-5), who shut out Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in her last outing, pitched another masterpiece to earn her eighth win of the season. She struck out five in six innings and the lone hit she gave up was an infield single to the shortstop.
The offense kept on flowing. Mackenzie Dutton hit a three-run shot in the second and as if to one-up her, Schiff immediately followed with a solo bomb to straightaway center to give the Leopards an early 6-0 lead.
Dutton and Schiff each has seven home runs this year and are tied for the SCIAC lead in the category. La Verne had nine home runs as a team last year.
With Kibbe dealing, the Leopards didn't need much else and Vela ended the game in the sixth inning with a two-run single up the middle to invoke the run-rule.
Vela, Dutton and Schiff notched two hits apiece and drove in all eight runs for La Verne. Kibbe also had a good day at the plate, going 2-for-3.
From head coach Julie Smith:
On putting together complete games back-to-back: "The players took it upon themselves to be a better unit and they carried it out both games. And the pitchers were incredible. Hayley had 10 strikes to zero walks. Katy gave up one hit and it was an infield it. Everything clicked—offense, defense and pitching."
On Kibbe: "She's the Katy that I recruited. Her freshman year, she was giving this kind of performance game in and game out. She's now coming into her own again. She just keeps getting more and more confident on the mound. Her balls just dropping off the table, she's even getting comfortable throwing the up-ball and our pitching coach Whitney Johnson instilling belief in our staff."
On Dutton and Schiff: "I think they're in a competition together. They're having fun in practice—you should see how many home runs they hit in practice every day. They're always over on the other side of the fence. They have fun with it in a healthy way. They encourage each other and work together."
Up next
The Leopards travel to Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday for a doubleheader. First game starts at noon.