Cal State San Bernardino handed Vanguard University only its second loss of the season Monday, defeating the NAIA 10th-ranked Lions, 12-3, in a game halted in the bottom of the fifth by the eight-run mercy rule.
    Earlier, Vanguard's Jennifer Olvera (4-0) scattered six hits and struck out 11 without walking anybody as the Lions won the first game of the doubleheader, 1-0, on the strength of Stephanie Leisenring's fourth-inning home run off CSUSB right-hander Debbie Shisler.
    Shisler pitched well enough to win most games, yielding just four hits while striking out two and not walking anybody.
    CSUSB is now 9-11-1 on the season as the team prepares to host Sonoma State for a four-game CCAA conference series, starting Friday at 1 p.m. at Coyote Softball Park. The series ends with a doubleheader on Saturday at 11 a.m.
    Trailing 2-1 after one inning in the nightcap, the Coyotes used a six-run barrage in the second inning to take a 7-2 lead. All of the runs in the inning were unearned. Senior third baseman Jordan Dahl capped the uprising with a two-run double to left center. Dahl was 3-for-4 in the game with four RBI and two runs scored. Ashley Collinwood, Nicole Camarena and Valerie Calderon also had RBIs in the inning.
    Given a 7-2 lead, Coyotes starter Jackie Jacob settled down and yielded just five hits in the game. Two of the runs against her were unearned. She struck out four and walked three.
    In the top of the fifth, the first two Vanguard batters reach base on singles but Jacob got out of the inning without giving up a run.
    The Coyotes then hit the Lions' third pitcher, Bethany Dempster for three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Shisler brought home a run with a sacrifice fly and Dahl singled in two runs to clinch the game. Lions' starter Kelsey Boyer (3-1) took the loss.
    Shisley was 3-for-4 in the nightcap as the Coyotes pounded 15 hits while Bird, Camarena and Priscilla Curiel each had two hits. Shisler was 2-for-3 in the first game, making a 5-for-7 day for the pitcher-second baseman.
    Jacob and Shisler held the Lions, who were 41-16 in 2007 and finished ninth in the NAIA national tournament, to just nine hits in 12 innings and none of its players had more than one hit in each game.