IRVINE, Calif. – The No. 23 Cal State San Marcos softball team (5-0) won the Concordia University Irvine Kickoff Classic Champion after claiming a 9-1 mercy-ruled victory over Colorado Christian (2-3) on Sunday morning. The Cougars went 5-0 with a +25 run differential, breaking the tie breakers with fellow CCAA opponents Cal State East Bay (+23) and Chico State (+18) who also went 5-0.
Savannah Coyle
Paige Donnelly
Jillian Albayati
CSUSM 9 – CCU 1
TOP PERFORMERS
Mackenzie Kestler – 3-for-3 | 2 RBIs | 1 R
Savannah Coyle – 1-for-2 | 2 RBIs | 2 R | 1 HBP
Paige Donnelly – 2-for-3 | 1 R | 1 RBI | 1 2B
Madison Waymire – 2-for-3 | 2 R | 1 2B
Jillian Albayati – 2-for-3 | 2 RBIs | 1 R | 1 3B
Jordan Elias – 2-for-3 | 1 R
HOW IT HAPPENED
- CSUSM wasted no time, putting three runs on the board in the first inning on Savannah Coyle's 2-RBI single and Mackenzie Kestler's RBI single.
- CCU pushed a run across on Kat Hanson's two-out RBI single to right field in the top of the second.
- Back-to-back RBI singles by Kestler and Jillian Albayati extended CSUSM's lead to 5-1 in the third inning.
- CSUSM made it 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth on consecutive doubles by Madison Waymire and Paige Donnelly.
- CSUSM posted three runs in the bottom of the fifth to evoke the mercy-rule. Albayati hit an RBI triple to left center before scoring on an error that put Czar Fleischman on third. A sacrifice fly by Olivia Rivera scored Fleischman to make it 9-1.
QUICK HITS
- The Cougars went 5-0 with a +25 run differential, breaking the tie breakers with fellow CCAA opponents Cal State East Bay (+23) and Chico State (+18) who also went 5-0.
- CSUSM starting pitcher Jayline Sloss (1-0) earned her first win of the season after allowing only one run on four hits and no walks in 5.0 innings of action.
- CCU's Elyse McMullin (1-1) recorded the loss after going 3.1 innings, giving up six runs on 10 hits.
- Savannah Coyle extended her streak of reaching base safely to 12 games, dating back to the end of last season.
- Jillian Albayati and Paige Donnelly have each tallied hits in the first five games.
- Albayati has recorded two hits in four of the five games.
THOUGHTS FROM HEAD COACH A.J. ROBINSON
"Happy to get started and have some success this opening weekend. We have a great mix of returners and new additions, and it is fun to see how they all meshed together. Our offense is really dynamic, and we can score a lot of different ways. Pitching is definitely a strength for us, and our defense is really good. We celebrate the little things and will enjoy this weekend's success on our bus ride home, but we will start focusing on our home opener tomorrow against HPU when we get back this afternoon."
UP NEXT
CSUSM will host Hawaii Pacific in its home opener in a doubleheader on Monday at 12 p.m.
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