Softball: Lions split with Biola

COSTA MESA - The Vanguard University softball team had a good ol’

fashioned pitchers’ duel in both games of Saturday’s doubleheader with

visiting Biola University.

The Lions won Game 1, 1-0, before losing, 1-0.

With a runner on second in the eighth inning due to the International

Tiebreaker Rule, Cheri Smith’s bunt single was good enough to score Jill

Jessen, giving the Lions the win.

The roles were reversed in the nightcap, as Jessica Clark, also on second

to start the eighth inning, scored from third on a squeeze bunt by Shauna

Brown.

Alysia Atchley pitched eight innings of five-hit ball to earn the win.

Bigger news is the status of standout pitcher Gina Liebengood. In a game

earlier in the season against North Dakota State, Liebengood was struck

in the pitching hand, breaking the fifth metatarsal bone.

Liebengood’s status, her hand not in a cast, remains uncertain.

GOLDEN STATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

Game 1

Vanguard University 1, Biola 0

Biola 000 000 00 - 0 5 0

Vanguard 000 000 01 - 1 2 1

Logsdon and Pluck; Atchley and Devey. W - Atchley, 5-12; L - Logsdon, 16-4.

Game 2

Biola 1, Vanguard University 0

Biola 000 000 01 - 1 4 0

Vanguard 000 000 00 - 0 4 1

Pox, Logsdon (8) and Menjares; Smith and Devey. W - Pox, 11-6; L - Smith, 2-9. 2B - Jessen (VU).