ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University softball team dropped a pair of games to No. 15-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges 7-6 and 9-4 in a SCIAC doubleheader at El Camino Real Park on Friday. The Panthers made an upset bid in Game 1 with a six-run, sixth-inning rally, but couldn't put the Athenas away in the seventh inning. Claremont then strung together back-to-back three-run innings in Game 2 to earn the sweep.

Game 1: Claremont-M-S 7, Chapman 6

Trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning, Chapman (7-10 overall, 5-8 SCIAC) sent 12 batters to the plate and rallied for six runs on five hits, two walks and an error. Junior C Lisa Perez, junior OF Gabrielle Leveratto and freshman IF Kristen Weiser collected back-to-back-to-back RBI singles with the bases loaded and pinch hitters senior Lindsay Holt and sophomore Severina Worthington drew bases loaded walks as part of the big inning. Perez and Weiser finished the game with two hits apiece.

However, the three-run lead wouldn't hold up in the seventh. The Athenas rallied for four of their own in the top of the inning, getting two-run singles from Katie Savard and Alexa Heydenberk to regain the lead. Claremont hung on in bottom of the inning to make a winner out of starting freshman LHP Anna Gurr (6-1).

Game 2: Claremont-M-S 9, Chapman 4

Three runs each in the third and fourth innings for the Athenas turned a 2-1 deficit into a 7-2 lead and they cruised from there. Savard and Heydenberk again did a majority of the damage delivering a two-run triples in the fourth and seventh innings, respectively. Savard finished 2-for-3 in the game with three RBI.

The Panthers jumped out to a lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a two-run homer off the left-field foul pole, her second of the season. Trailing 7-2, Chapman again plated a pair of runs in the fourth inning with RBI singles from junior OF Amy Serven and freshman DP Sarah Taketa, but that was as close as it would get. Sophomore IF Amber Perez was 2-for-3 with a run scored in the loss.

Chapman has lost four of its past five games heading into its spring break. The Panthers will resume their schedule on March 31 when they host Williams College (Mass.) in a non-conference doubleheader at El Camino Real Park beginning at 2 p.m.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

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