LONG BEACH, Calif.—Long Beach State held off the University of Hawai'i softball team (18-20, 11-6 Big West) in the series opener, 2-1 on Friday night. In a pitcher's duel of a game, Hawai'i's
Addison Kostrencich fired a complete game in the loss while
Izabella Martinez drove in UH's lone run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth on Friday night at the LBSU Softball Complex.
Kostrencich tossed her 13
th complete game of the season and fell to 11-7 overall. She allowed a pair of runs on five hits with four strikeouts and two walks in six innings of work.
In the top of the third, UH loaded the bases with one out, but The Beach escaped unscathed with a strikeout and a groundout to first to squash the Rainbow rally.
In the bottom of the third, LBSU's Makayla Medellin hit a double to the right-centerfield gap to drive in a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead.
Hawai'i loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth on three consecutive singles by
Madixx Muramoto,
Cierra Yamamoto and Xiao Gin. After a long battle at the plate by Keliinoi,
Izabella Martinez lifted a sacrifice fly out to left to drive in Muramoto from third to cut their deficit in half, trailing 2-1, but UH would strand the two other runners on base.
Long Beach State's Fernandez evened her record at 11-11 throwing all seven innings in the win. She gave up one run while spacing five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
For UH, both Gin and Murmoto had two hits apiece to account for four of UH's five hits in the game. In the loss,
Chloe Borges' streak of reaching base safely in 21-straight games was snapped.
The same two teams will square off in a series-ending doubleheader on Saturday, April 27
th beginning at 10:00 a.m. HT. Both games will be played at the LBSU Softball Complex.
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