LOS ANGELES —Despite pushing Claremont-Mudd-Scripps through seven close innings, the Occidental College softball team fell short in the first game of a double header Saturday afternoon, 3-0.

The game started out on a high note for the Tigers (0-4, 0-2), who put the first runner on base against an Athenas defense that has had three shutouts in four games this season.

Kristine Kocjan (Redwood City) moved lead off hitter Jacqueline Shimamoto (Santa Clarita) into scoring position on a ground out to short stop, but Oxy couldn't take advantage of its early pressure.

Occidental held CMS (3-1, 2-0) in the bottom of the inning as Brittany Vacura (Elk Grove) took the mound.

"We did a lot of good things early," Occidental College softball coach Jodie Cox said. "We put a lot of pressure on them in the first inning. That's something we haven't done in the past."

Jerrika Barron (Half Moon Bay) and Ashley Noone (Orange) singled in the second and fourth, respectively, but those were the only other base runners for Occidental before the sixth inning.

Claremont got on the board in the second on a two run RBI single by Harmony Palmer, and again in the fourth on a double by Megan Latta to go ahead 3-0.

Occidental had one more chance to get on the board in the sixth behind singles off the bats of Shimamoto and Noone, but the Athenas held firm and CMS pitcher Rebecca Gularte forced a groundout to end the inning.

"We were in it the whole time, putting pressure on them the entire seven," Cox said. "I was very pleased to see that effort today."

Game 2: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 9, Occidental 0 (F/5)

Despite a strong showing in game one of their double header at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps earlier Saturday afternoon, the Occidental College softball team was not able to come back from an early seven run disadvantage, losing to the Athenas 9-0.

The Tigers gave up six runs in the second inning and were not able to produce enough offense to overcome their early deficit.

Amber Garland (Torrance) only gave ups six hits, but Oxy was hurt by four errors, three of which came in the decisive second inning, and seven walks by Garland.

"Giving up six runs in the second inning totally killed us," Occidental coach Jodie Cox said. "We are not going to win games having that many errors and that many walks."

Kristine Kocjan (Redwood City) broke up a Hayley Schultz no-hitter in the top of the fifth with a single, which turned out to be the only hit for Oxy in game 2.

Despite the final score, there were bright spots for the Tigers. Outside of the six run second inning, the Occidental defense was sharp kept them competitive with the back-to-back SCIAC champions.

"The mistakes made in today's games were all controllable. They are things we can build on and improve from for next time."

Occidental takes the field again on Friday Feb. 17 as they host La Sierra University in a double header starting at 2 p.m.