Feb. 23, 2007
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara softball team (0-11) continues their quest for their first win of the season after another tough loss Friday to Northern Illinois University (NIU). Jerrica Castagno entered the game in the second inning and pitched five brilliant innings, striking out a season-high ten batters and giving up only four hits and a walk.
Freshman Lauren Passafuime started the game, and, after giving up a run in the first inning, had a rough start to the second. Passafuime gave up a leadoff homerun to Ashley Clement, the next batter, Ellen Stoddard, was hit by a pitch and then Passafuime gave up a single to Jenna Roberts before being replaced by Castagno.
Castagno was impressive, retiring the first four batters she faced, and six of the first eight. Castagno gave up only four hits and a walk to the total 25 batters she faced.
The top of the 5th inning was the only inning NIU was able to get anything going against Castagno, putting together back-to-back singles and then taking advantage of an error to score two more runs.
The bats were working better for the Broncos Friday as they out-hit the Huskies by a 9-8 margin. It was the second time in 2007 that Santa Clara has out-hit their opponent and the second time in as many games after out-hitting Pacific 11-7 last Sunday.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning, the Broncos pulled even and could have had some more runs. Angela Kabanuck and Jackie Morales swapped spots in the batting order, and after a leadoff single by Kabanuck, and then single by Jackie Morales, cleanup hitter Ashley Blier walked to load the bases with one out. Alyc Kalamaha came through with a sacrifice fly to rightfield scoring Kabanuck from third and advancing the runners But with two out and runners at second and third, Emily Batt was unable to score Morales or Blier.
In the fifth, Kabanuck hit her first home run of the season to narrow the gap to 4-2, but the damage had already been done, and the Broncos ran out of time. Kabanuck finished the day 2-for-4 and scored both Bronco runs. Jackie Morales led the Broncos with three hits, finishing the afternoon 3-for-4 with a double.
Saturday the Broncos will continue the UCSB tournament with a game against host UCSB at 10:00 a.m. followed by the University of Texas-San Antonio at 2:00 p.m.