LA VERNE, Calif. — Hayley Jaquess fired a 4-hit shutout to lead the La Verne softball team to a 5-0 win over Chapman in the opening game of the 2017 SCIAC Postseason Tournament. The Leopards advance to the winners' bracket and will face the winner of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps versus Whittier matchup tomorrow at noon.
Jaquess (11-5), who gave up just one run in 14 innings against Chapman in the regular season, stumped the Panthers once again. The senior punched out five batters while scattering four hits and a pair of walks over seven innings.
La Verne got on the board early, scoring the winning run in the first inning. Carly Condon led off the La Verne first with a double to deep left and Alexis Schiff brought her home with a sacrifice fly to right field two batters later.
The Leopards doubled the lead in the fifth inning with another sacrifice fly, with Condon plating Deguzman with a flyball to right field, and broke the game open with a 3-run sixth. The Leopards loaded the bases with two outs and scored two as Melissa Garcia's soft grounder to short was muffed by the shortstop. Condon then legged out an infield single to short to score Deguzman to give the Leopards a 5-0 lead.
Condon finished 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored. Deguzman was 1-for-2 with two runs.
Sarah Hartmann (5-4) was tagged with the loss after giving up five runs in six innings.