KANEOHE, Hawaii -- For the second straight day, Cal State San Bernardino senior left-hander
Cassidy Lee shutout the 2010 CCAA Champion Sonoma State Seawolves.
But this time the stakes were higher. Much higher.
Lee threw her second consecutive shutout against the Seawolves and the West's seventh-seeded Coyotes pushed two runs across in the sixth inning as they earned the NCAA Division II West 2 Regional title with a 2-0 win.
Box Score: (Click here)
The Coyotes, now 35-22, await Monday's West 1 Regional finale between CCAA rivals UC San Diego and host Chico State. The game begins at 11 a.m. and the winner awaits the Coyotes in this week's West Super-Regional, a best two-out-of-three series that begins Friday at a to-be-determined venue.
Sunday's title game was rained out in Chico with the Tritons unbeaten during the tourney.
"We came over here determined to make this a business trip and I couldn't be happier for our team,'' said an exhuberant head coach
Tacy Duncan. "Cassidy was absolutely outstanding. When we needed her to deliver she did. She shutout the CCAA title team two games in a row and we had opportune at-bats today. And Jacquelyn came through today, stepped up as a senior and got two doubles.''
CSUSB came through with two runs on three hits in the pivotal sixth inning. The rally began with two outs after
Alex Mitchell popped out to third and
Britney Butler grounded out to short.
Holtzclaw reached base on a double down the left-field line and scored on
Jamie Leffingwell's single to left.
Stefanie Pace was up next and came through with the second run of the inning. She ripped a single to center that scored Leffingwell, who scored from second. Pace advanced to second and eventually third when the center fielder couldn't get a handle on the ball.
That was all the support that Lee needed. She threw her third consecutive complete game in NCAA play -- a first in the history of CSUSB softball -- and faced just 13 Seawolves batters over the final 4 1/3 innings. She retired the side in order in the fourth, fifth and seventh inning and faced just three batters in the fourth when she induced an inning-ending double play -- a 4-6-3 double play.
Lee had four strikeouts, did not walk a hitter and scattered five hits and only one extra-base hit.
The Coyotes were out-hit by the Seawolves for the second straight game. In Saturday's 1-0 Coyotes' win, CSUSB had just two hits. On Sunday, CSUSB had four hits with Holtzclaw leading with two doubles.
