SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Dominican University split its double-header against Holy Names University on Saturday, earning a 3-2 win in game one after dropping an 11-8 decision in game two. The split brought the Penguins overall record to 6-2, marking the best start to a season that a Dominican softball team has owned since joining the NCAA. 

Sophomore Shelby Keltner earned her third victory of the season (3-1) after relieving junior Catherine Caravalho in game one. 

Game One

Junior Peyton Mott tallied her first hit of the afternoon in her first at bat in the first game, earning a two-out single but ultimately being left on base to end the inning. Sophomore Lauren Lapinid started the next inning with a double to deep left, but she too would be left stranded as the Hawks defense retired three straight batters following the deep double. 

Carvalho would be pulled from the game in the third inning after her second inning saw a pair of batters hit by her pitches, while also walking one to load the bases. She was able to get herself out of trouble in the second inning after earning a strikeout for the third and final out of the frame, but she began the third similarly to how she performed in the second, walking the first batter of the inning before being taken out. 

Junior Rose Leguria saw a three-up three-down inning after replacing Caravalho, giving Dominican the boost it needed. A single off the bat of Alyssa Ramirez started the four inning before an RBI single courtesy of Mott brought Ramirez home. A Lapinid sacrifice bunt ended with her strategically rounded first and forcing a pick-off play while Mott trotted into third unscathed before being brought home by the next batter. Dominican would head back to its dugout with a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. 

Leguria pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning to protect the two-run Penguin advantage. Dominican tapped into its inner Jeopardy when freshman McKenna Daley swung into her now-patented Daley-double to start the fifth inning before getting caught stealing during the next at-bat. Dominican would fail to score additional runs, contrasting the bottom-half of the inning when the Hawks were able to cut the lead in half after back-to-back hits brought in a base runner. Holy Names tied the game in the bottom of the seventh after a two-out triple led to an eventual game-tying run, making this the second consecutive game that would need to be decided by extras. 

Senior Vanessa Porto started the eighth inning with a single to give the Penguins a base runner. Ramirez bunted into what was initially thought to be nothing more than a sacrifice bunt, but the entire HNU infield caught got shifting while watching Ramirez get thrown out at first, so Porto quietly found her way to third base. Mott decided that the game didn't need to go on any longer she brought Porto home with a sacrifice fly to right field, marking the final run of the game as Dominican walked away with a 3-2 win in game one. 

Game Two

Dominican found itself chasing an early deficit as HNU got off to a 6-0 first inning lead that was capped off with a two-run homer. Dominican made a big dent in that lead in the ensuing inning after a two-out rally would result in five runs. A Daley single got the Penguin party started before an Alyssa Waltman single brought her home. The next two batters also found the bags to load the bases for Mott, and Mott made no mistake as she sent a bases-clearing double to deep center. Before the inning ended, Dominican found itself trailing by just one. 

Waltman came into pitch in the second inning, but her luck was short lived as her first pitch was sent well over the fence in center field, brining the score to 7-5. The Hawks added a trio of runs to lead 10-5, but Dominican would again cut into the lead in the top of the fifth when sophomore Celeste Salas notched a pair of RBI's with a double to deep left. In the next inning, Daley battled back from an 0-2 count to force a walk, which was followed by a single. Mott would notch another RBI with a double on an 0-2 count to bring the score to 10-8, but that's as close as the Penguins would get as HNU added an insurance run before earning the 11-8 win. 

Dominican now looks ahead to next weekend when it travels south to Los Angeles for a pair of matches against Biola University.