LOS ANGELES ? The Portland Softball team captured the Pacific Coast Softball Conference title with a doubleheader sweep at Loyola Marymount on Saturday. It is the Vikings second PCSC championship and first since 2006.
The Vikings won the opener, 2-0, and then had to rally in the last inning for a 7-4 win in game two.
"I'm just so proud of all of these kids," said first year Head Coach Tobin Echo-Hawk. "The last inning was indicative of how our season has been. We just fight and scrap, and we don't have one superstar, but a team where everyone contributes. It's a perfect ending to how our season has gone so far."
Portland State (28-23) entered the day needing to win two of the four games against LMU, and took care of business with the sweep. The Vikings sit in first place with a 14-4 record. Sacramento State can tie them if they win four games at Santa Clara this weekend, but the Viks have the tiebreaker by winning three of four against the Hornets.
Echo-Hawk and the Vikings have secured themselves a trip to the NCAA
playoffs. They will find out on Sunday, May 9 where they will go for
regional play.
Late in the second contest it appeared that the Vikings would have to wait a day to win the conference as they trailed 5-4 going into the seventh. But they scored four runs on five hits to rally for the victory.
After Arielle Wiser fouled out on the first pitch of the seventh, the Viks loaded the bases with three straight singles by Jamee Rauch, Jackie Heide and Jana Rae Slayton. Brandi Scoggins then followed with a bases-clearing double off the left field fence to put PSU up, 6-4.
The Viks would get another insurance run two batters later when Kristin Wilson singled home Scoggins.
Tori Rogers then sat the Lions down in order in the seventh to give the Viks the title.
"We (the coaches) didn't have to say anything to them before the last inning," Echo-Hawk said. "They knew what they had to do. There wasn't anything that we could say to them that they didn't already knew."
PSU led 3-2 after four innings, but the Lions went in front in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run home run by Megan Ackerman.
Rogers (11-5) went the distance, giving up two earned runs on five hits and three walks.
Portland State pounded out 14 hits off of LMU pitcher Corie Goodman (12-15).
Jenna Wilson led the charge by going 3-for-4, while Heide, Scoggins, Kristin Wilson and De'Chauna Skinner both had two hits.
In the opener, Nichole Latham pitched brilliantly, sitting LMU down in order in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings. Latham allowed just one hit through six innings, facing just two batters over the minimum.
Latham (15-11) scattered three hits in going the distance. It was her third shutout of the year.
Both of the Vikings runs came in the fifth, with Wiser driving in the first run on a single to left field. Skinner later scored the second run when Wiser intentionally was caught in a run down trying to steal second base.
Kristin Wilson went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate to lead the Viks seven-hit attack. Rauch added two more hits.
Melissa Dykema fell to 11-13 with the loss after giving up two runs and two walks.
"A lot of people counted us out this year losing a key player in Mandy Hill," said Echo-Hawk of the Vikings being predicted to finish fourth in the preseason coaches poll. "We kept saying to the team all year, 'you guys are good, you guys are good.' They finally believed in themselves and their positive attitudes paid off."
Portland State closes out the regular season tomorrow with two more games against the Lions. Both games can be heard on GoViks.com.
GAME NOTES: The Vikings were just 3-9 in PCSC games at Smith Field before today. They had not won at LMU since 2005 ... PSU hit .382 in the two games, while the Lions hit just .157 ... Slayton became the PSU career record holder for games played in game one. She has now started all 224 games at first base ... Heide and Rauch both have six-game hitting streaks ... Rauch picked up her PCSC-leading 13th stolen base in game two ... PSU has won a season-high five-straight games.
