CHANDLER, Ariz. - The battle of the Red Hawks in the desert saw Simpson sweep the twin-bill against former Cal Pac rival Benedictine University, Mesa, this afternoon.
A leadoff single by
Jordan Adami, followed by a hit by pitch to
Madison Chapman, chased Ben U's starter Alina Sanchez in the top of the third inning as
Kassandra Soria came through with an RBI single to give Simpson the early lead.
Back-to-back hits in the bottom half of the inning put Ben U in business as they scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
Ben U pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI double down the left field line by Jalseen Calderon.
A leadoff home run to begin the top of the sixth inning by Soria marked her first long ball of the year to tie the game.
Starting with the ghost runner on second base to begin the top of the eighth inning, Simpson regained the two-run lead on one swing of the bat as Soria belted her second home run of the game for a two-run blast to left center.
Reliever,
Jacquelyn Lujan, tossed 4.2 innings of one-run ball while notching her first win of the year. She silenced the Ben U bats as she allowed just two hits while striking out seven batters.
Simpson starter
Lily Rojas earned the no-decision as she scattered seven hits on one run over 3.1 innings of work.
Soria highlighted the Simpson bats with her first multi-home run game of the year as she posted three hits while driving in all four Simpson runs.
Olivia Bicondova followed close behind with a two-for-three performance, which included a stolen base.
Game 2:
A leadoff double into left center by
Nicolena Holen to begin the second game of the day came around to score on a two-out infield single by
Brianna Lopez-Cortez.
Simpson added four runs in the top of the third inning as Lopez-Cortez stroked a bases-clearing double into right-center.
Ben U answered with a crooked number in the bottom of the third inning as they scored four runs on a two-out rally to pull within one. But back-to-back RBI swings by
Kahiwa Ili and Soria extended Simpson's lead to three in the following inning.
But the Red Hawks added on, as they exploded for six runs on nine hits over the next two innings to take the commanding 12-4 lead as
Mariah Rosales and
Emily Placencia each posted RBI singles.
Starter Katelyne Robinnett earned the no-decision after tossing 2.2 innings of work in her first appearance of the year. Reliever
Grace Chojnacki picked up her first win of the year after firing 3.1 shutout innings to preserve the 13-4 victory in six innings.
The Simpson offense totaled 18 hits in game two as Illi and Lopez-Cortez led the way with three-hit performances while combining for five RBIs.
Shelby Flournoy, Placencia, Bicondova, and Holen each finished with two hits.
Simpson is back in action tomorrow as they take on Arizona Christian with the first pitch of the twin-bill set for 11 am (MST).
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