LOS ANGELES, CALIF.  (Mar. 29, 2009) – The Tigers were coming into the weekend with a lot of confidence, having put together some great wins in the non conference portion of the schedule, and hoped to capitalize on that experience in conference play.  In the opener of the weekend, Oxy lost a heartbreaker to La Verne, but rebounded to take the lead in two of the final three games, but offensive explosions by their opponents left them winless.

In the opener Saturday, the Tigers jumped out to a quick two run lead in the top of the first.  Gabriela Chavez reached on an error, and then two pitches later was strolling home, as Alyssa Escalante crushed a pitch to left center to give Oxy the lead.

The Leopards were stunned, but responded in the bottom of the first, pushing across one run to cut into the Tiger lead.  Once starting pitcher Brianna Hogg came out for the top of the second, she had found her groove, as she pitched six no hit innings.  The Oxy defense, surrendered another run in the bottom half of the third.

Setting up a dramatic finish, as La Verne entered the bottom of the seventh, still tied with the Tigers at two.  The Leopards opened the inning with a double, and was able to advance to third on a passed ball, and then beat out a slow grounder to the shortstop.  With only one out it was a gutsy call to send the runner, as the ball was hit to the short side of the field, but the Leopard base runner evaded the tag at home, scoring the game winning run.   In the process handing Oxy a disappointing 3-2 defeat.

In game two, La Verne was determined to not play from behind all game, getting to starting pitcher Kimi Elguea early and often.  Scoring five runs on seven hits in the bottom of the first.  Oxy seemed to be in a position to respond in the top of the second, Alyssa Smith started the inning with a single, followed by another hit from Tasha Serna-Gallegos.  Vanessa Hernandez then hit a liner to third, reaching because the third baseman couldn't handle the shot, leaving the bases loaded with two out.  But that would be as close as they would come this inning, as La Verne coaxed a grounder out of the next Tiger batter to end the inning on a force out.

The Leopards put the game seemingly out of reach with another big inning in the third, pushing across three, while stranding three more runners as the inning closed.  Oxy did try to rally in the fourth, as Smith was hit by a pitch, followed by a single from Gallegos, and then Lindsay Gross was again hit by a pitch to load the bases with no one out.  Unfortunately they were only to push one across, as Olympia Powell was able to draw a two out walk to break up the shut out.

La Verne tacked on another run in the sixth to push the final score 9-1 in favor of the  Leopards.  Oxy fell to 12-11 and 1-9 in conference play after the first weekend series.

The second double header of the weekend brought in the Athena's from Claremont.  Who currently are in second place in the conference standings, and were 17-6 overall.  Neither intimidated the Tigers, as they jumped in front 1-0 on the visitors.  Scoring first in the top of the second, as Stephanie Egan was hit by a pitch, then proceeded to steal second.  Which was just close enough to score off a Gallegos deep shot to center field.

Just like that the Tigers were again out in front in the conference match up.   But Claremont would respond in the bottom half of the second with two runs, and continued to give Oxy pitcher Shana Yackel all kinds of trouble, tagging for nine runs in the contest.  Once again sending the Tigers to the wrong end of a 9-1 decision.

Hoping to salvage the final game of the day, Oxy once again struck first, and again it was Escalante blasting a two run shot to get the scoring going in the bottom of the first, and pushing the Tigers out in front by two.

Once again they couldn't protect that lead as Yackel surrendered two runs in the top of second, and even with a change to Elguea, the Athena's continued to roll.  Holding the Tigers scoreless for the rest of the contest while putting up eight runs of their own.

The 8-2 loss left the Tigers now at 12-13 overall and 1-11 in conference play.

Next up for the Tigers is another conference opponent, this Saturday, April 4^th starting at Noon, on the road against Cal Lutheran.