TURLOCK, Calif. — The Dominican University of California softball split two games in the first day of the Tournament of Champions hosted by Cal State Stanislaus with an 8-6 win over UC San Diego and a 2-1 loss to Cal State East Bay.

After enduring a 99-minute delay due to previous games running late, the Penguins got underway with the Tritons. The first three innings were scoreless, though both teams left eight runnesr on the basepaths. The Penguins kept the Tritons off the board in the first when Kendall Baker tried stealing home on a ball to the backstop but catcher Shannon Rodriguez reacted quickly and tossed home to pitcher Kelsey Lardner, who was there in plenty of time to beat Baker.

UC San Diego took the game's first lead in the fourth on a Lauren Sanders homer to left center. The Tritons doubled the lead in the fifth when Goodner struggled with her control and issued four consecutive walks on 15 pitches.

Dominican broke through in the fifth. Back-to-back singles from Tori Johnson and Leslie Mesa, followed by a walk to Katelyn Harden, set up Catlyn Cavender for a two-run double. Tayler Munoz and Ashlyn Moriarity followed with a pair of sacrifice fly balls to give Dominican a 4-2 lead. However, the Tritons erased the deficit in the sixth off of reliver Angelina Lombardi.

The Penguins responded big though in the bottom half of the inning. Allyssa Lanza started things off with a bunt single, stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Johnson walked, then Mesa gave the Penguins a lead for good with an RBI single to right field, plus Johnson moved up to third on a sloppy relay to the infield. She scored on a Harden single down the third base line and another poor relay allowed Mesa to advance to third base. Another pair of runs came in and would prove much needed. Lombardi loaded the bases in the seventh and threw a wild pitch but Shannon Rodriguez made another nice play behind the plate and tagged the runner out at home. Rachel Phillips got two runs back for the Tritons with a single to center but Lombardi induced a groundout to pick up her first win of the season.

In the nightcap, Harden, Katelyn threw an economical 85 pitches in a complete-game effort but took a hard-luck loss. She allowed a run in the third. Her error to start the inning extended the inning, which set up an Ali Cerminara RBI single. However, Johnson limited the damage and ended the inning on the same play with a bullet home to cut down Cassie Vela at the plate. Catlyn Cavender launched her eighth home run of the season in the top of the fourth to tie the game at 1-1 but Cerminara had a homer of her own in the sixth inning, which wound up being the difference.

The Penguins take on Humboldt State, Saint Martin's, and Cal State Dominguez Hills on day two of the Tournament of Champions. Full tournament coverage is available at warriorathletics.com/toc and live stats will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live.