Box Score Turlock, CA - The Turlock Convention and Visitors Bureau Tournament of Champions is in the books for the Simon Fraser University softball team after suffering a 1-0 loss to the Chaminade Silverswords in the consolation semi-final on Sunday.
Jessica Goulet (Cambridge, ON) gave the Clan all they could ask for, throwing six and two thirds innings of shutout ball before an unearned run crossed for Chaminade in the bottom of the seventh, giving them the 1-0 victory.
Goulet threw a no hitter through the first four innings before allowing three singles, one per inning, in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
She struck out four and walked two in the game.
"I'm really pleased with the pitching performance but very disappointed with our offensive effort," said Head Coach
Mike Renney. "We didn't make the adjustments we needed to against pitching that we're capable of handling at this point in our season. We also made a couple of errors and had two key offensive missed signals that took us out of scoring opportunities."
The Clan threatened in the fifth inning when
Stefanie Sheard (Winnipeg, MB) led off the inning by beating out a bunt.
She would make it to third thanks to a sacrifice bunt and a ground out but was left stranded, coming as close as SFU would come to scoring in the game.
The seventh inning started with Goulet inducing the Chaminade leadoff hitter to pop out to second baseman
Alexis Johnston (Abbotsford, BC).
Ciana Ross reached on an error but was quickly retired as the next batter hit a ground ball to Sheard at third who opted to go to second base and retire the lead runner, leaving Jenn Betian on first by virtue of the fielder's choice.
A Thersa Capllonch single advanced Betian into scoring position and on the next batter, Betian would come around to score on a throwing error, giving the Silverswords the 1-0 walk off victory.
Sheard and
Robyn Mogavero (Whitby, ON) had the only two hits in the game for SFU.
"We're living by freshman and we're dying by freshman in some cases with their run coming in the seventh inning with two freshman errors to bookend the inning. Having said that, it's these experiences that will help us in the future with the playing time the freshman are getting now," continued Renney.
The Clan will return home where they will host the Central Washington Wildcats on Wednesday in a double header beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Beedie Field.
"Overall for this trip it was good to be competitive and the fact that we were more competitive against the better teams was good, we tended to play up to their level including losses to Azusa and Humboldt who are both ranked."
"We beat a couple of California teams which certainly gave us a measure of what we can do when we put seven innings together. Unfortunately we also played down to teams that are middle of the road at times and those are consistency issues we need to resolve," finished Renney.
