Cal Lutheran Breezes to Third Title in a Row

A gusty wind was blowing in at Cal Lutheran’s Gibello Field on Friday, but that didn’t stop the Regals from blowing Cal Baptist out of the NAIA District 3 softball championships.

Cal Lutheran had six consecutive hits in a four-run fifth inning that broke a scoreless tie and gave the Regals a 4-0 second-game victory and a sweep of the best-of-three series.

After winning the first game, 5-1, Cal Lutheran clinched its third consecutive District 3 title with its big fifth inning in the second game.

The outburst was sparked by an out rather than a hit. After Cal Lutheran’s Kim White was called out on a close play at third, Leslie Stevens immediately followed with a triple to right center that scored Dani Piotrowski with what turned out to be the winning run.

“I was just mad they called Kim White out. I couldn’t believe that,” Stevens said.

Stevens scored on Cheryl Aschenbach’s subsequent double, and DeeAndra Pilkington followed with a run-scoring triple. Alysa Mathews then singled in Pilkington to complete the scoring.

“You don’t get us mad,” Cal Lutheran Coach Tony Venditto said. “We play with a lot of emotion, and that was one of the things we were lacking.”

Cal Lutheran (31-10-2) has won 19 of its last 20 games, but Venditto believes his team has been emotionally flat since spring break. Cal Lutheran won a ho-hum first game on Pilkington’s four-hitter.

“They came in on a real high,” Venditto said of Cal Baptist (23-24). “Our goal the first game is to shut them down.”

Stevens (13-4), who has won her last 10 decisions, threw a two-hitter for Cal Lutheran, which is now one round away from making its third trip in a row to the NAIA nationals. The Regals play next week in the bi-district tournament against the winner of the District 7 championships.

In the first game, Pilkington (16-6) struck out six and allowed only one unearned run. The Regals led, 1-0, after four innings and scored four runs in the fifth, the key hit a two-run single by Mathews.

White finished the day six for eight off freshman right-hander Amy Dawson (14-12), who started and lost both games.

With the sweep, Cal Lutheran avoided a potential third game that had been scheduled for today.

“We didn’t want to play them (today) at all,” Venditto said. “We kept stressing all week there’s only two games.”