March 6, 2009

BOX SCORE: Long Beach State 4, Longwood 0

BOX SCORE: Iowa 6, Longwood 0

LAKEWOOD, Calif. – Longwood University fell to Long Beach State and Iowa in the first two games of the Long Beach State Invitational softball tournament. The Lancers lost to host Long Beach State 4-0 in the first game and dropped the second game to Iowa, 6-0. Longwood returns to the field tomorrow (Saturday, March 7), facing Syracuse at 4:15 p.m. ET and Cal State Fullerton at 8:45 p.m. ET.
 
Longwood (6-6) fell behind early to Long Beach State (13-7). Briana Wells/Romoland, Calif. (Paloma Valley), playing only 70 miles from her hometown, started in the circle for the Lancers and got the first two batters to fly out to Camille Ketsdever/Irvine, Calif. (Irvine) in right field. Longwood almost made it out of the inning but Jennifer Griffin walked. Griffin stole second and advanced to third on an error by catcher Emily Radford/Tacoma, Wash. (Fife). Kristen Pocock singled to left field, scoring Griffin. Longwood's best chance to score was in the second inning. With two outs, Amy Betterton/Rocky Mount, Va. (Franklin County) singled to right field. Betterton advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third when second baseman Maggie Margadonna/Sea Girt, N.J. (Wall Township) singled to left field. The inning ended with runners stranded on the corners when Kami Nuckols/Glen Allen, Va. (Patrick Henry) struck out swinging. Long Beach State added two more two-out runs in the top of the fourth inning on a Brianna Goad triple. Betterton and Margadonna each went 2-for-3 from the plate against Long Beach State.
 
The Lancers did not get much of a break, taking the field in the next game against Iowa (13-3). The Hawkeyes, who are receiving votes in both the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 polls, scored at least one run in the first four innings en route to winning their seventh straight game. Longwood's lone hit came in the first inning when Ketsdever hit a two-out single. Iowa scored one run in the first inning with only one ball leaving the infield. Erin Riemersma hit a leadoff single to right field and advanced to second on a throwing error by Radford. Taylor Leichsenning sacrificed Riemersma to third, and Riemersma scored when Katie Brown grounded out to second. Iowa made the score 2-0 in the second inning on a Katie Keim RBI single down the right field line. The Hawkeyes added two runs in the third and two more in the fourth to make the final score 6-0.
 
Wells was charged with both losses, dropping her record to 5-5 on the season. The sophomore struck out six in 10 innings of work over the two games. Brittany Spencer/Virginia Beach, Va. (First Colonial) pitched three shutout innings in the two games, giving up only two hits and striking out one.