Beach
softball stops Pacific
By Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
 Sophomore
Meredith Cervenka was named co-pitcher of
the week for the week of April 19 and continued
her dominance on the mound in Stockton where
the softball team took on the Pacific Tigers
(31-19, 7-7) in a double-header on Saturday.
Cervenka tallied up her seventh consecutive
victory as The Beach (20-17, 8-3) knocked
off the Tigers 5-1 after losing the first
game of the series, 7-3.
The Beach is currently in second place with
an 8-3 record trailing Cal State Fullerton,
whose only loss in conference play was to
the 49ers last weekend.
Cervenka, who improved her record to 9-8,
allowed four hits and one run in the game
and has only given up two earned runs in
32 innings on the mound.
The offense jumped out to a 1-0 lead in
the second inning by manufacturing a run.
Rocky Staniorski led off with a double and
moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jamie
Farnworth. Melanie McCauley then hit a sacrifice
fly to put The Beach in front, 1-0.
The Beach busted the game wide open in the
fifth inning with a four-run flurry. Melissa
Backstrom blasted her first home-run of
the year to lead off the inning. Colleen
Burdick would then draw a walk before Lauren
Johnson singled. Arleigh Thorp, who leads
the 49ers with 15 RBIs, then drew a walk
to set the stage for Farnworth’s bases-loaded,
two-out, double to right-center that plated
all three runners and pushed The Beach’s
lead to 4-1.
Farnworth finished the game 2-for-3 with
three RBIs while Thorp and Staniorski both
added doubles.
Lindsey Knoff did not have her good stuff
on the hill in game one, giving up seven
runs on eight hits as the Tigers put up
five runs in the second inning propelling
them to a 7-3 victory.
Knoff has been dominating on the hill for
The Beach, going 11-8 with 85 strikeouts
before the loss. Knoff had a 1.62 ERA in
just over 142 innings of work - good enough
for sixth best in the conference.
Sunday afternoon Cervenka returned to the
mound and led the 49ers to an 8-0 victory.
With the win Cervenka has now won eight
consecutive decisions and yesterday received
her second straight Big West Pitcher of
the Week award.
The Beach will be back in action when the
team travels to UC Santa Barbara to play
a three-game series against the Gauchos
starting on Friday.
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