LA VERNE, Calif. — Hayley Jaquess came within inches of perfection against Cal Lutheran, pitching a no-hitter to lead the University of La Verne softball team to an 8-0 run rule win in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Campus West. La Verne won the first game, 5-4, for the sweep.
Jaquess struck out five in five innings and would have been perfect had she not hit the leadoff batter in the top of the third inning. She consistently induced weak contact and the Regals only managed to get the ball out infield once.
Cal Lutheran starter Nicole Whitemadolara matched Jaquess pitch-for-pitch through the first three innings but La Verne bats exploded in the fourth for seven runs on seven hits. Carly Condon led off the inning with a walk and Mackenzie Dutton promptly knocked her in with an RBI double to deep left. Katherine Kibbe and Victoria Baltazar then loaded the bases with a pair of singles and Sienna Kendricks and Angelica DeAngelo slapped two more singles to give the Leopards a 4-0 lead. The Leopards tacked on three more runs via an error, another RBI hit by Dutton and a bases-loaded walk.
Baltazar worked a walk to lead off the fifth, immediately stole second and Sienna Kedricks doubled her in invoke the run-rule.
Dutton finished 3-for-3 with a run and two RBI and Kendricks hit 2-for-3 with a run and two RBI.
Kibbe pitched a gritty complete game to lead the Leopards to a 5-4 win in the first game.
The Rohnert Park native cruised through the first five innings before running into trouble in the sixth as Blake Lewis hit a two-run homer for the Regals and the Leopards allowed two runs on a double steal and a fielding error, tying the game at 4-4.
But Kibbe induced the next hitter into a double play to get out of the jam and the offense came through in the bottom half of the sixth as Melissa Garcia smacked an RBI double to deep left to put the Leopards back up, 5-4.
Kibbe finished with six strikeouts while giving up three earned runs and moves to 2-0 on the season.
La Verne opened the scoring in the third inning. Rachel Ogata scored on a two-out fielding error by Jacy Watanabe and Alexis Schiff made the Regals pay with a two-run double down the left line to give the Leopards a 3-0 lead.
Dutton extended the lead to 4-0 in the fifth inning with an infield single that scored Ogata.
Schiff finished the game 2-for-2 with two RBI and Garcia went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Ogata recorded a hit and scored two runs.
The Leopards are back in action next Saturday at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.