MORAGA, Calif. - The Santa Clara softball team dropped both West Coast Conference doubleheader games on Saturday, losing 3-0 and 8-7.
Game 1: Saint Mary's 3 - Santa Clara 0
Avrey Wolverton tossed a shutout and Hannah Ferguson hit a solo home run to lead Saint Mary's to a 3-0 win over Santa Clara in the first game of the doubleheader.
Wolverton (4-3) allowed four hits and three walks to lower her season ERA to 0.79 but not before the Broncos (18-18, 0-4 WCC) made it interesting in the top of the seventh.
Trailing by three runs, Sammy Needham singled and Lauren LaHood drew a walk to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. Morgan Salmon popped out before Allyson Ferreira reached on another free pass to load the bases. However, Wolverton got Regan Dias to fly out for the final out.
The Broncos put the leadoff runner aboard in three of the first four innings but were unable to push a run across.
In the first two frames, SCU's leadoff hitter was doubled off the base on a pair of liners. And in the fourth, they put runners at the corners with one out but a failed double steal attempt and a fly out ended the threat.
Meanwhile, Ferguson gave the Gaels (12-17, 3-1 WCC) an early lead when she took Broncos starter Sage Hager (8-5) deep in the bottom of the first to put Saint Mary's up 1-0.
The Gaels doubled their lead to 2-0 in the third on an RBI single by Taylor Lane and added an insurance run in the sixth when Claudia Kirchner was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Lane went 3-for-3 and Ferguson had a pair of hits. Needham was the only Bronco with multiple hits.
Ashley Trierweiler extended her streak to 30-straight games of successfully reaching base with a walk and a single.
Game 2: Saint Mary's 8 - Santa Clara 7
Hannah Ferguson once again came up with the game-winning hit to lift Saint Mary's to an 8-7 comeback win to take the second game.
Ferguson went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and Odhi Vasquez (5-2) pitched the final five innings to earn the win.
With the Gaels (13-17, 4-1 WCC) trailing 7-6 in the home half of the sixth, Ferguson delivered a 2-RBI single off reliever Regan Dias who came in the game with the bases loaded and no out.
In that sixth inning, Hazyl Gray allowed the first three Gaels to reach base on a single and two hit by pitches to load the bases before being replaced by Dias. Rylee Gomez's sacrifice fly trimmed the lead to one before Ferguson's base knock completed the comeback from five runs down.
The Broncos (18-19, 0-5 WCC) collected eigh hits in the game, including Allyson Ferreira's bases clearing double as part of a four-run third inning to go up 6-1.
Saint Mary's came back with their own four-run inning in the fourth with only one of them being earned. The Gaels had three hits in the frame but were aided by a wild pitch and a fielding error that led to three runs to cut the Broncos lead to 6-5.
Santa Clara added a run in the fifth on Ashley Trierweiler's RBI sacrifice fly to push the lead out by two runs but could not hold onto the lead.
Gray (3-6) gave up three runs in her inning of work to take the loss. Lauren Lahood had two hits and Trierweiler had one and scored twice.
NEXT UP
The series finale is set for Sunday at noon.
