AZUSA, Calif. -- After its opening-game rally came up short, Azusa Pacific came from behind and never slowed down in a mercy-rule victory in the second game of its Pacific West Conference-opening split against Academy of Art Friday afternoon. The Cougars scored 18 runs on the day, dropping the first game, 8-6, before coming back to win, 12-4, in five innings.
The four-game PacWest series continues tomorrow with an 11 a.m. doubleheader between teams which combined for 30 runs and 45 hits in Friday's twinbill.
Junior catcher Madison Hernandez was four-for-four on the day with her first home run of the season, a game-tying solo home run in her first at-bat of the opener, and junior Janelle Eccles led the offensive onslaught in the second game by going three-for-four with a home run and five RBIs.
After Hernandez tied Friday's opener at 1-1 with her second-inning solo shot over the left field fence, Academy of Art answered in the top of the third by loading the bases with no outs on three consecutive singles to start the frame. The Urban Knights cashed in all three over the course of the inning to take a 4-1 lead, and three more hits in the fourth resulted in an insurance run before the Cougars began to respond.
Sophomore third baseman Nicki Sprague hit a one-out triple in the bottom of the fourth, and she scored on a Hernandez base hit to cut the lead to 5-2, and two innings later, senior leftfielder Sona Babayan doubled to drive in a run and then scored on a sacrifice fly to pull Azusa Pacific within one run, 5-4, in the bottom of the sixth.
Academy of Art came up with another three-run, five-hit inning, but the Urban Knights committed back-to-back errors to put the first two Cougars on base. Wild pitches allowed the first baserunner to score while a Sprague two-out double scored another to cut the margin to 8-6. The rally ended there with a groundout induced by Art U pitcher Brenna Mitchell, who scattered six runs (only two earned) on seven hits with five strikeouts.
The nightcap got off to a better start for Azusa Pacific, as Hernandez plated a pair of runs in the first inning with a one-out double to left-center. Nirana Singh put Academy of Art in front with a two-out, three-run second-inning home run, and the Urban Knights put another run across in the third even though the ball never made it out of the infield. Art U added one more in the third, opening with three consecutive infield singles before an error allowed the Urban Knights to score again and extend its lead to 4-2.
Again, the Cougars rallied, this time scoring three runs on three hits in the third inning to take a 5-4 lead, while Eccles smashed a three-run home run to left-center field while Becca Dawson tripled and scored on an error for another insurance run that gave Azusa Pacific a 9-4 edge. Sprague led off the fifth with an infield single prior to Hernandez drawing a walk, and Eccles along with freshman first baseman Kayla Jimenez each drove in a run a few batters ahead of Ally Wimer's pinch-hit bases-loaded walk which ended the game as the Cougars took an eight-run lead to close out the game.
Academy of Art's offense, which registered 25 hits, was led by its leadoff hitter Haily MacDonald, who went five-for-seven with four runs on the day. In both games, eight of the nine Academy of Art starters hit safely and finished the day with a team batting average of .431 (25-for-58) against Cougar pitching.
With the split, Azusa Pacific is now 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the PacWest, while Academy of Art is now 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the PacWest.
