FULLERTON, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's softball team defeated the University of Hawaii in a doubleheader on Saturday at home to complete the series sweep over the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine.
The Titans have won 14 games in a row, have won seven straight series, and have won four consecutive series sweeps. The Titans have improved to 33-16 overall and 20-4 in conference play.
The Titans won both games on Saturday by a combined score of 8-to-1. They won the series overall, outscoring Hawaii 9-to-1. During the Titans 14-game win streak, they have outscored their opponents 69-to-9.
Cal State Fullerton 5, University of Hawaii 1
The Cal State Fullerton Titans defeated the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine 5-to-1 in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader.
The Titans played ahead with an early lead after scoring two in the first, a common theme for all three games.
Alexa Neil led the first inning off with a double and Jessi Alcala followed her with a single. Alexa Neil came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Daisy Munoz.
B1 | @daisymunozz with another 1st inning RBI to bring in Neal on the sac fly! Titans lead 1-0#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/tvbxARNEdm
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 6, 2023
Hannah Becerra doubled in Alcala to give the Titans a 2-0 advantage.
Hawaii got one run back in the third inning after a leadoff homerun by Maycen Gibbs.
However, the Titans would add three more insurances in the fourth and fifth inning. With two outs in the fourth and two runners on, Evelyn Sablan hit a double to right center to score two runners.
B4 | @evelyn_sablan brings home two on a double to right center! The Titans take a 4-1 lead!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/2ke5zRU5c0
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 6, 2023
The Titans led the fifth inning off with two bunt singles by Alexa Neil and Bailey Wallace. On Wallace's bunt, the catcher threw the ball away allowing Alexa Neil to advance to third. She scored after a delayed double steal attempt where Hawaii focused on the out at second which allowed Neal to easily score
Haley Rainey drew the start and allowed 0 runs on four hits, four walks, and nine strikeouts in six innings of work.
M4 | @HaleyRainey2 strikes out two in the fourth!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/xdZRupQlMl
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 6, 2023
Alexia Silvas pitched the final frame in her conference outing and first outing since early March. Silvas struck out two in a clean 1-2-3 inning in the seventh.
BALLGAME! The Titans take the second game of the series 5-1 over Hawaii. Alexia Silvas tosses 1-2-3 inning in the seventh!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/Emqg3DVbv6
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 6, 2023
Cal State Fullerton 3, University of Hawaii 0
In her final outing at Anderson Family Field, Myka Sutherlin led the Titans over Hawaii in her 19th win of the season and 10th straight win. The senior went 6.1 innings and allowed zero runs on four hits, zero walks, and seven strikeouts.
M2 | @meeksmyka gets her third strikeout of the game to close out the second#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/QW5xJ2HmbZ
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 7, 2023
The Titans offense scored early to give Sutherlin a lead to work with. Alexa Neil led the first inning with a walk and Jessi Alcala singled to give the Titans two runners on board. A wild pitch put both runners in scoring position. Hannah Becerra singled to left field to score both runners.
B1 | The Titans strike first for the third time this weekend in the first inning. @hhannahh20 singles in two!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/jKwzmUy0PF
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 6, 2023
In the second inning. Peyton Toto led the inning off with a base hit up the middle. She advanced to second on a 6-3 groundout and came around to score on an Alexa Neil double to left center.
B2 | @alexaneil42 doubles in one to put the Titans on top 3-0!#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/hEZDlQOPIu
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 7, 2023
Those three runs provided all the cushion Sutherlin needed to go out there.
Sutherlin was pulled in the seventh inning after getting the first out to give her family, friends, and teammates a chance to give her a final goodbye at home.
Raci Miranda came in and got the last two outs of the ballgame to finish the complete game shutout.
BALLGAME! @MirandaRaci closes out the game and series over the University of Hawaii and the Titans take the final game 3-0 and sweep the series over the Rainbow Wahine#TusksUp pic.twitter.com/xGhWpKMF40
— Titans Softball (@Fullerton_SB) May 7, 2023
The Titans had their best hitting game of the weekend after pounding out eight hits over the Rainbow Wahine. Alexa Neil, Jessi Alcala, and Evelyn Sablan all had two base hits in the game.
The Titans will head to Long Beach State for the final weekend of the regular season. The first game on Friday will be televised nationally on ESPNU. The Titans and Long Beach State will go into the same scenario for the past three seasons in a row. The Titans only need to win one game over Long Beach as they have a two-game lead to win the Best West Championship Title.
WATCH THE TITANS ON ESPN+
Titans fans can now watch home contests exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for Titans Athletics. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
FOLLOW THE TITANS!
Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (FullertonTitans). In addition, the softball team has established its own Twitter (fullerton_sb) and Instagram accounts (fullerton_sb)
