Feb. 23, 2007
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – Notre Dame (2-5) took the tough loss 7-5 to No. 17 California (8-4) in its second game of the day at the Palm Springs Tournament in Cathedral City, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 23 at Yankee Field at the Big League Dreams Complex.
The Golden Bears took the early 4-0 lead on Notre Dame in the first inning. Christine Schallig singled, Bernice Masaniai walked and Katie Vickers reached on fielder’s choice before the grand slam by Alex Sutton.
Notre Dame had an early chance to break through in the second, as Heather Johnson (Los Alamitos, Calif./Mater Dei) drew a leadoff walk. Junior Brittany Glynn (Seymour, Conn./St. Joseph’s) pinch ran for Johnson went to second on the one-out walk to Erin Glasco (Johnston City, Ill./Johnston City) but both runners were stranded as a pop out and ground out ended the inning.
California added a run in the third. Morgan Siegel and Schallig walked to put a pair of runners on to lead off the frame. Vicker’s then hit a single to drive in Siegel from second for the fifth Cal run. Kenya Fuemmeler (Salisbury, Mo.//Salisbury), the Irish hurler, did an effective job of getting out of sticky situation as she fanned the last two batters to limit the damage and leave the bases loaded.
The Irish broke thorough for a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Glasco walk and was on for the ride as Gessica Hufnagle (Middlebury, Ind./Northridge) hit her first home run of the season.
The Bears would add another run in the fifth on the two-out RBI single from Vernae Serville.
Cal would finish off the Golden Bears’ scoring in the seventh with Siegel scoring the seventh run off a misplayed ground out.
Notre Dame would put together one last push in the seventh inning. Stephanie Mola (Naples, Fla./St. John Neumann) walked to lead off the inning. She went to second on the single from Stephanie Brown (Chandler, Ariz./Corona del Sol). A walk to Linda Kohan (La Habra, Calif./Sonora) loaded the bases. Johnson came through with a two-run double scoring Mola and Brown and making the score 7-4. On the next pitch Kohan would scamper home on wild pitch to make it 7-5. The following pitch momentarily got away from the Cal catcher, as Johnson attempted to score and was tagged out at the plate to end the game.
Lauren Frankiewski went 6 2/3 to pick up the win. Brittany La Rosa came in for the final out to pick up the save.
Fuemmeler saw her record fall to 0-3 as she gave up six runs in five innings with five walks and a career-best nine strikeouts.
Notre Dame continues its play in the Palm Springs Tournament with a game against UNLV at 10:30 a.m. (PT) on Feb. 24.
Irish Notes: Sophomore Christine Farrell (La Habra, Calif./Sonora) made her Irish debut when she came in to pitch the sixth inning.