SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California softball team closed out its home season with a pair of wins on Sunday to earn the season sweep over Holy Names, 5-0 and 7-4.
After a surprising pair of losses to BYU-Hawaii on Friday, the Penguins' offense tallied 18 hits and hung on to give the Penguins an 11-10 mark at home, making for a winning home schedule in the Penguin's inaugural season on Penguin Field at the John F. Allen Athletics Complex.
The team's three seniors —
Leslie Mesa,
Kayla Rodriguez, and
Samantha Talavera — were honored in a pregame Senior Day ceremony. Once gametime rolled around, freshman
Kelsey Goodner showed promise for the future of Dominican softball with a one-hit complete-game shutout. Holy Names' lone hit came in the fifth, a Nicolette Soares slap through the left side. Goodner got the next three batters to pop up or fly out.
In the first inning,
Catlyn Cavender gave the Penguins their first lead of the day with a two-out, two-run homer to left field for her team-leading 10th homer and 29th and 30th RBIs. Cavender added RBI number 31 in the third, driving home
Leslie Mesa, who led off the inning with a double. Cavender came home on a Talavera single through the left side to make it 4-0.
Katelyn Harden added one more run in the fourth with a bases-loaded chopper back to the circle.
Harden took the circle for game two. She allowed three earned runs and earned her team-leading ninth win and 14th complete game of the season. Harden began game two by loading the bases despite not allowing a hit. She got catcher Samantha Moffat to groundout to get of the first. Harden's shaky start spilled into the second, where the Hawks plated a pair of runs on three hits. She allowed single runs in the fifth and seventh.
In the bottom of the first in game two, Harden singled down the right field line and made it all the way to third thanks to an error in right field.
Tori Johnson, who began the game with a walk, scored from second on the play. Harden made it a 2-0 lead by scoring on a wild pitch. After HNU tied the game in the top of the second, Dominican regained the lead. Johnson singled home
Kayla Rodriguez, who was hit by a pitch, and Marisa Cordisco, who walked. Both of those runners moved up 60 feet thanks to a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by
Alyssa Lanza. In the fourth,
Sarah McKenzie pinch ran for Talavera, who walked, and stole her first career base as part of Dominican's perfect 5-for-5 day on steal attempts. She came all the way home on a wild pitch to make it 5-2. Johnson had an RBI groundout and Harden had her third hit of the game in the sixth inning.
The Penguins' defense made some of their best plays of the season on Sunday.
Tori Johnson set the tone early in game one, slamming into the outfield wall and hanging on for the catch. Mesa had a couple of nice catches in center field in game one, and Cavender made a spectacular play at second base in game two, barehanding a ball that knicked off of the first baseman's glove and tossing it back to first from her knees for the out.
Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with three runs, a hit by pitch, and two stolen bases in her final two games on Penguin Field. Mesa went 3-for-7 with a run and Talavera had a hit, an RBI, and a stolen base. Harden went 4-for-8 on the day with a pair or runs and three RBI.
Dominican closes out the 2015 campaign with a road trip to Southern California. Dominican head to No. 16 California Baptist for four games on Friday, April 24 and Friday, April 25 and wraps up the season with a doubleheader at Azusa Pacific on Monday, April 27.
