LOS ANGELES — A pair of two-out rallies cost the Occidental softball team in a competitive first game and the Tigers lost a heartbreaking, 11-inning thriller in the second, dropping both games of a doubleheader with Chapman at Bell Field on Saturday.

Oxy fell 5-1 in Game 1 and 1-0 in Game 2.

Game 2 was about as exciting as you could draw it up. Oxy's Morgan Giusti missed a walk-off homer off the wall in the bottom of the ninth by six inches, Chapman strung together a picture-perfect outfield relay to get what would have been the winning run at the plate on a double in the gap by Kristine Kocjan and Ali Goldberg pitched 10 scoreless innings.

But after the game went to the international tiebreaker rule following the ninth inning, with a  runner placed on second to start each team's turn at the plate, Chapman's Lindsay Holt came up with the big hit and the ball didn't bounce Oxy's way in a 1-0 loss in Game 2.

"We played hard and we gave it our best effort. We're making the adjustments we need to make and we got better today," Oxy head coach Ali Haehnel said. "Goldberg pitched a great game and she deserved to win, but we just couldn't come up with that timely hit to give her that one run to go ahead."

Goldberg also went 4 for 8 on the day from the plate.

Kocjan was 4 for 7 with an RBI-double.

Game 1: Chapman 5, Occidental 1

Amber Garland had a solid outing as Oxy's starter, but two-out rallies in the fourth and fifth led Chapman to the victory.

With two down in the fourth, Holt doubled in Lisa Perez from third base with a shot off of the right-field wall, putting the Panthers up 2-0.

The most costly rally came in Chapman's next turn at the plate. With two outs and a full count in the fifth, Taylor Cartwright doubled in Natalie Both and then Perez followed it up with a two-run homer, extending Chapman's lead to 5-0.

"They had clutch hits in the first game and while we were getting runners on base we just didn't have that timely hit to score runs," Haehnel said.

Karina Muniz scored Chapman's first run in the third with a solo home run to left.

Elissa Minamishin — an All-SCIAC women's soccer player who joined the Tigers softball team for the first time this year as a senior— got Oxy's scoring inning going with a lead-off infield single to third in the fifth. Jerika Barron followed it with a double off the wall in left and then Garland, who was running for Minamishin in the flex position, scored on an error at third.

Barron made an impressive diving play at shortstop and crawled to tag second base to get the force out and get Oxy out of the first inning. She led off the bottom of the first with a single and the Tigers loaded the bases, but came away empty-handed.

Emily Pham pitched two scoreless innings in relief for Oxy.

Garland gave up five earned in five innings.

Oregel pitched a complete game, surrendering no earned runs.

Game 2: Chapman 1, Occidental 0

Goldberg had a career day in the circle — throwing 11 innings — and Oxy had several chances come up just short.

"She did a good job of hitting her spots, getting ahead in the count and leading us one pitch at a time in the circle," Haehnel said. "She pitched today in a way that she has been working for all season. She zoned in on every pitch, hit great spots and executed well, especially when she was ahead in the count."

Oxy's first heartbreak came when Giusti crushed a single that just missed ending the game in walk-off fashion, bouncing off of the top of the outfield wall in left.

Pham came on to run for Giusti and nearly crossed the plate for the winning run in the next at bat. Kocjan drilled a double to right center — her third hit of the game — and Haehnel sent Pham from third with one out. Pham turned the corner, but was beaten by the relay from Muniz in center to Both to Perez for the easy tag.

"At that point in the game, when it was that close, I was going to air on the side of aggression," Haehnel said. "Worst case scenario I knew we'd have another chance with Kocjan at second."

Kocjan finished the game 3 for 4 and seemed to have Both's number.

"She did a great job behind the plate for us today. She was strong blocking balls in the dirt and she did a great job of supporting our pitching staff," Haehnel said. "At the plate she was aggressive early in the count, she had a nice clutch double in the gap and overall hit the ball hard all day."

Holt drove in Cartwright with a single to center field for the winning run.

Both, Goldberg's counterpart in the circle, was as good, shutting out Oxy through the first nine innings.

Oregel finished the final two innings, earning the win. She finished the day with nine innings pitched and no earned runs.

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