CSUN Hits the Wall Against Parra : Softball World Series: Calcante provides lone Matador highlight with first-inning double.

Had Cal State Northridge slugger Beth Calcante not swung at a pitch a foot above her head in the first inning, Arizona ace Susie Parra might have thrown the first championship game no-hitter in the 13-year history of the College Softball World Series.

But Calcante did swing at the Parra rise ball out of the strike zone and managed to tomahawk it into the left-center field gap for a double in the first inning of the Matadors’ 4-0 loss to Arizona on Monday in the championship game in front of 3,966 at Hall of Fame Stadium.

Even Arizona shortstop Laura Espinoza, who hit a record-setting 30 home runs this season, couldn’t believe that Calcante had connected.

“How the hell did you hit that ball?” Espinoza asked Calcante, who after sliding headfirst into second was brushing the dirt off her uniform when Espinoza approached her.

Calcante, who admits she can’t lay off the rise ball to save her life, answered honestly, “I don’t know.”

The significance of Calcante’s double however, wasn’t fully realized until the end of the game.

After Calcante’s blast, Parra retired the next 18 batters in a row before walking Tamara Ivie with two out in the seventh.

Parra finished with a one-hitter, 13 strikeouts and faced just two over the minimum, but felt she never threw a bad pitch.

“That pitch was probably about a foot over her head,” Parra said. “I don’t know how she hit that ball.”

The hit gave Calcante the school career mark for doubles.

Going into the game, Calcante and Ivie were tied with 30 career doubles.

Calcante, who along with Shannon Jones and Jen Fleming, was selected to the all-tournament team, certainly didn’t think her one hit would be the focal point--not to mention the only hit--of the championship game for the Matadors (52-10).

After all, Northridge was batting .318 as a team with 127 hits for extra bases and had never had less than three hits in any game this season.

“I thought it would get us going,” said Calcante, who set school records this season for career home runs (33) and runs batted in (141).

Turns out, it was only a hit, nothing more, nothing less. Ivie struck out on a 3-and-2 drop to end the inning.

“I had so much confidence in myself,” Ivie said.

“I saw the ball so well and I swung at a pitch and it just dropped right under my bat.”

While Northridge’s inability to hit Parra frustrated the Matadors, it surprised Arizona first baseman Amy Chellevold of Thousand Oaks.

Chellevold played against Calcante, a Newbury Park product, in high school, so she knows Calcante’s ability and was not surprised that it was her double that spoiled Parra’s no-hitter.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Chellevold said. “I though she’d get a few hits, but Susie did a great job today.”

It was about the sixth inning, Ivie said, when the Matadors began to pack it in.

By then, Arizona owned a 4-0 lead and the heat and humidity was penetrating the Matadors’ black jerseys. They were hot and frustrated.

However, when Ivie went to the plate for the last time in her college career with two out in the seventh, she wasn’t about to make the third out, instead coaxing a walk.

“I was either gonna walk or hit a home run and I really believed that,” Ivie said. “I wanted to get on base so bad.”