‘Cuse Falls Late To Long Beach State, 4-2

Saturday, February 21

Cathedral City, CA

8:30 PM EST

Syracuse University

6-7

Long Beach State

7-7

Syracuse

Long Beach State

2/22/2015 1:02:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

Sydney O’Hara’s two-run shot was all the Orange offense could muster in the loss

CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – Another game came down to the wire for Syracuse (6-7) as a two-run sixth by Long Beach State (7-7) was the difference in the pitcher's duel. Jocelyn Cater was dominant again, picking up five strikeouts in 5.2 innings while allowing four runs, but two of which were earned.

With two outs and a runner on second, Long Beach State was able to get on the board to score the runner with a triple down the right field line and then on a wild pitch. The runs represented the first two runs of the ball game, handing Syracuse a 2-0 deficit.

Syracuse was unable to get anything going offensively until Sammy Fernandez kicked off the fourth with a single to left. The 49er's handled the next two batters but with two outs, O'Hara helped her fellow pitcher out by tying the game at two with a home run to right-center.

Neither team was able to score until the sixth when the leadoff hitter reached on an error and the next batter walked to set up the inning. A ground ball by the ensuing batter wasn't hard enough to spin a double play, giving Syracuse one out and runners on second and third to deal with. After a lengthy at-bat, Long Beach State hit a sacrifice fly to score the go-ahead run and later score a fourth insurance run on a triple to right center.

Syracuse was able to escape the inning but was silenced in the seventh. The Orange was able to load the bases with one out thanks to a walk by Julie Wambold and singles by Cater and Danielle Chitkowski but the next two batters weren't able to drive them in, resulting in the 4-2 loss.