San Rafael, Calif. -- The Dominican University of California softball team (16-16, 15-9) earned at very minimum a berth in a one-game pod championship playoff, needing just 10 total innings to roll past Holy Names University (6-13, 6-13). Holy Names will now play a four-game weekend series against the Academy of Art this upcoming weekend. If ART U sweeps the four-game series, it and Dominican will go to a one-game playoff to determine who makes the conference postseason. If the Urban Knights lose one game over the weekend, Dominican will be given the outright title of Pod Champion.

Dominican earned wins by the scores of 14-0 and 11-3, respectively, earning both victories in just five innings per game as it led by eight or more runs after five innings of Hawks' at-bats. The wins made Dominican the outright winner of the pod due to holding the tiebreaker over the Academy of Art University because of its 7-5 record over the Urban Knights. 

Sophomore Shelby Keltner (8-8) earned her eighth win of the season in game one of the double-header, allowing no runs and just four hits through five innings of shutout softball. Freshman Kailani Medina (4-0) earned her fourth win of the season as she cruised through 3 1/3 innings of one-hit ball after relieving junior Kathryn Carvalho in the second inning of game two.

"Once I get out of my own head, everything starts to work," Medina said. "Our team just did what we do, we didn't adjust to them and stayed positive."

Junior Peyton Mott led all Penguin batters on the afternoon, tallying four RBIs while going 4-for-5 with one walk and once reaching the bases after being hit by a pitch. Senior Mady Christensen notched her second home run in as many weekends, sending a two-run shot deep over the fence in left-center to earn two of her three RBIs in game one. 

Game One

Three of the opening four batters found the bags for Dominican in game one, with senior Vanessa Porto tapping a single up the middle of the field. Porto stole second, putting her in scoring position for the double that came courtesy of junior Alyssa Ramirez just two batters later, giving Dominican a 1-0 lead. Mott mirrored Ramirez's efforts as she also hit a double in the next at bat, scoring Ramirez and giving Dominican a 2-0 early lead. 

Dominican loaded the bases in the ensuing inning after a single by sophomore Celeste Salas queued a pitching change for the Hawks. The result of the next at-bat was a Bella Romani walk, followed by another Porto single to load the bases for the Penguins. A Christensen sacrifice fly put brought-in Salas and put a third run on the board before another walk, this time Ramirez, would again load the bases for Dominican. Deja Vu occurred as Mott again mirrored the actions of Ramirez, also earning a walk to push the runners ahead a base to bring in the fourth run of the game. A 36-minute delay rained on the walk parade as the moisture caused a break in the action, but the inning would eventually continue, but a groundout ended the inning. 

A lengthy fourth inning put the game far out of reach for the Hawks as Dominican saw an astonishing 10 runs cross the plate as the 14 consecutive batters reached the bases before Holy Names was able to tally three straight outs.. Porto started with a leadoff walk before being brought home by the Christenson dinger, followed by a hit-by-pitch and a pair of errors by the Hawks' defense. Back-to-back singles brought two more runs home, Another error a wild pitch and a muffed throw brought-in two more runs before the following four batters were either walked or hit by a pitch to score the remaining runs for Dominican. The top of the fifth inning solved nothing for the Hawks, giving Dominican a 14-0 run win in five innings. 

Game Two

Dominican came out swinging for singles in the second inning, notching four singles while also reaching on a pair of fielder's choices. Sophomore Lauren Lapinid earned the first RBI with a single that was just out of the pitcher's reach before senior Alyssa Waltman brought in two runs with a single to left field that scored Lapinid and sophomore Shelby Cefalu to earn a 3-0 lead, with Cefalu having reached on the fielder's choice earlier in the inning. 

The Hawks found their bats in the second inning with the first three batters all recording hits, a single followed by a double and another single, bringing the score even at 3-3. The tie was short-lived as a Salas sacrifice fly brought home Ramirez in the bottom of the inning before a successful Lapinid bunt scored Mott during the following at-bat, giving Dominican a 5-3 lead. 

No runs were scored in the third inning, but Porto again but Dominican in a good position as she reached base as the leadoff batter thanks to Hawks error. Porto would be brought home by a Ramirez double just two batters later to give the Penguins a 6-3 advantage.

Dominican sealed the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, with Romani and Mott both earning one RBI apiece while Porto doubled home a pair of runs. Mott's RBI brought upon the mercy rule for Dominican, giving it an 11-3 win and the sweep. 

"Nothing goes through my head while I'm at the plate, that's what helps me the most. I see the ball, and I hit the ball," Mott said. "We need to keep playing up to our standards. We know how we can play, and we did that today."