Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 SAN FRANCISCO — The Dominican University of California women's softball team used strong pitching and timely hitting to notch a pair of non-conference victories, 2-1 and 3-1, over visiting Central Washington University on Saturday.

The Penguins (4-3) saw superb starting pitching from sophomore Ashlyn Moriarity and senior Karly Harris, both of whom went the distance.

"When our pitchers are in a rhythm and our defense makes plays behind them like they did today, we're a pretty good team," said Head Coach Sarah Iwata. "We had some more timely hitting today and for the most part limited our errors."

Moriarity (3-1) allowed seven hits and issued two walks. She allowed a two-out run in the second inning that gave CWU (6-3_ its only lead of the day but induced a comebacker to avoid further damage. The defense then picked Moriarity up in the third. Back-to-back hits to start the frame put runners on second and third. A pop up bunt ended disastrously for the Wildcats when first baseman Kayleigh Klingberg charged in to make the catch and threw across the diamond to third for the double play. Moriarity struck out Alyssa Egan to end the inning and didn't allow another hit the rest of the day.

Dominican's offense came alive in the fifth inning. Alyssa Lanza reached base on a fielder's choice and advanced to third on a two-out double by Tori Johnson. Leslie Mesa drove both in with a single to left field to make it 2-1.

Harris (1-2) matched Moriarity's effort, allowing seven hits and two walks over seven innings to pick up her first victory of the season. She was given an early lead in the second inning when Kayla Rodriguez tripled to left field on a full-count with two outs. That allowed senior catcher Dominique Perry, who reached on a single, to score all the way from first.

CWU capitalized on a pair of Dominican fielding errors and tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth. The Penguins answered quickly by capitalizing on a CWU miscue in the bottom half of the inning. Morarity led the inning off with a single, then pinch runner Catlyn Cavender stole second. Cavender scored from second on a throwing error from third baseman Alexa Olague, whose errant throw with two outs allowed Rodriguez to also move into scoring position. Rodriguez then came home on Rachel Ditta's double to left field to give Dominican an insurance run.

The defense came up huge again in the seventh. After Harris allowed a leadoff double, Ditta fielded a grounder and gunned across to Kayleigh Klingberg for the force at first. Klingberg fired to Rodriguez at shortstop, who caught pinch runner Michaela Hazlett in a rundown. Rodriguez threw to the second baseman, Santiago, who applied the tag to complete the double play. Harris induced a groundout to the next batter to finish things off and move the Penguins back above the .500 mark.

Johnson's three hits on the day moved her into the team lead with 11. She's now hitting .407 on the season. Rodriguez, who is starting to heat up after a slow start, went 2-for-4 on the day with a run and an RBI.

The Penguins face Humboldt State, ranked No. 1 in the latest NFCA poll, on Sunday. First pitch of that non-conference doubleheader is slated for 12:00 p.m. at San Francisco State. Live stats will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live.