49ers
rally, send Canadians packing
By Oscar Montealegre
On-line Forty-Niner
Down
by two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning,
the Long Beach State Softball team was able
to ignite a rally in the bottom of the eighth
and defeat the Canadian National team 3-2.
The game was an exhibition played at Mayfair
Park Friday night. Two weeks earlier The
Long Beach State Softball team also defeated
the Spanish National team in a double header
by the scores of 2-1 and 10-0.
“It is always a benefit to our team to play
national teams. It is always a plus any
time we play tough teams like Team Canada.
You have to play good teams in order to
get ready for conference play,” Pete Manarino
said, coach of the LBSU women’s softball
team.
Team Canada was up 2-0 in the bottom of
the sixth inning. The Canadian National
Team earned its two runs with an RBI hit
and an error by Long Beach State.
However, Long Beach State responded when
Colleen Burdick launched a double which
drove in Lauren Johnson and Melanie McCauley
in the bottom of the sixth inning.
No significant action occurred in the seventh
inning, and both teams stepped into the
eighth inning tied at two runs. In the top
of the eighth inning, the Canadian National
Team was able to get a player to second
base. However, the runner failed to advance
from second and the game continued into
extra innings.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Long
Beach State finalized their comeback victory
after Tiffanie Wedell scored on an error.
The starting pitcher for LBSU, Lindsey Knoff,
went 6.1 innings and allowed two runs and
struck out 11 batters. The victory was accredited
to Meredith Cervenka, who pitched 1.2 innings
and struck out two. The losing pitcher for
Team Canada was Kelly Zeilstra.
“I am very happy the way the team is playing
right now. So far we are doing fine, but
it is still early in the season. Conference
play is coming soon and our conference is
a very tough conference,” Manarino said.
“However, the coaches did pick us to come
in third place with our conference. But
you have to play all the games at a high
level to succeed in our conference.”
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