Calcante’s Heroics Are Catching in CSUN’s Softball Sweep of UNLV

Five home runs fueled Cal State Northridge’s upset sweep of third-ranked Nevada Las Vegas, 3-0 and 4-1, Friday in nonconference softball in front of about 200 at Northridge.

Beth Calcante, the school’s most prolific home run hitter, belted two homers in the first game to set the standard and three teammates--Scia Maumausolo, Missy Cress and Shannon Jones--followed with solo shots in the second game.

Seventh-ranked Northridge (16-2) is 12-0 at home and 8-2 against top-20 teams. UNLV fell to 13-5.

Calcante drove in all three Matador runs in the opener. Her two-run homer in her first plate appearance gave the Matadors a 2-0 lead. Later, Calcante led off the sixth by pounding her first pitch over the right-center-field fence, matching her school record for most home runs in a game. She also did it against Michigan State last March.

What happened in between those record-tying home runs, however, was perhaps more extraordinary.

UNLV was trailing, 2-0, with the bases loaded and two out in the fourth inning when Sara Mallett ripped a 2-and-1 pitch deep into left field. It appeared to be a grand slam that would turn the tables on the Matadors.

But Calcante, a junior left fielder, wasn’t going to be upstaged.

On the run, Calcante approached the 5-foot, chain-link fence, stuck her left foot into it, jumped and single-handedly robbed Mallett of a homer.

“We practice it all the time and none of us can ever get our cleats in the fence. Everyone always slides,” Calcante said. “When it was in. . . . God, I was so excited.”

In the second game, UNLV struck first with one run in the third inning on two errors and a run-scoring single by Lisa Wilkins-Eames. Maumausolo’s homer in the fourth tied it, 1-1.

Tamara Ivie’s sacrifice fly to left field drove in Vicky Rios for the Matadors’ go-ahead run in the fifth.

Cress and Jones, who both went two for three, led off the fifth inning with back-to-back home runs, a first in Matador history.