Feb. 25, 2005
The University of Notre Dame softball team (4-3) suffered its first loss in four games with a 7-0 setback to Loyola Marymount (1-0) at the Palm Springs Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., on Friday afternoon. The Irish will need to find their game to avoid an 0-2 start in the tournament, as Notre Dame will face #3/4 UCLA at 8:30 p.m. (PT) as the tournament continues.
Notre Dame’s offense missed out on a few key opportunities and actually kept pace with Loyola Marymount in hits (seven for ND to seven for LMU), but the Lions drove two balls out of the park and the Irish committed two key errors in the fourth inning to bury themselves in a deep hole on the scoreboard.
LMU starting pitcher Tiffany Pagano scattered seven hits in a complete-game shutout. Freshman shortstop Katie Laing paced the Notre Dame offense with two hits.
Notre Dame starting pitcher Steffany Stenglein (4.0 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 1 ER) seemed to be in a grove early in the game until LMU’s Lisa Abbott drilled a solo home run in the top of the third. Abbott’s big hit was the second of the game for the Lions and broke a five strikeout streak for Stenglein.
The defense behind Stenglein began to come apart in the fourth inning, while she also ended up hurting herself with two walks. Caylin Hornish led off the inning with a walk and pinch runner Lauren Hiramoto (after a fly out) moved to second base on a single through the left side by Brittney Bassett. Tracy Cook drew a walk to load the bases and the Irish defense started to stub its toe. Stenglein induced a ground ball to second base which looked like a sure force out at home, but Irish catcher Gessica Hufnagle did not have her foot on home plate. The runner was called safe on the error.
Whitt then stepped in an lifted a fly ball into the gap in left-centerfield. Notre Dame’s Kellie Middleton had the ball in her glove, but it fell out for a two base error – allowing two runs to score. The damage continued when Stenglein issued a walk to Abbott allowing Margo Pineda to drive in the fourth unearned run of the inning with a ground ball out.
The Lions tacked on another two runs to their lead in the sixth inning when Pineda crushed a two-run homer to straight away centerfield off reliever Carrie Wisen.
RESULTS NOTE: Due to limited availability of phone lines and internet access at the softball complex for this weekend’s tournament, please accept our apologies for the delay of updates on the website – the information is being uploaded as quickly as possible.