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Sagl, Cal complete comeback with two wins

5 min read
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CALIFORNIA – While her teammates took pictures and accepted congratulatory hugs from each other and friends and family, California University pitcher Alex Sagl sat on the ground at Lilley Field in the middle of the postgame celebration.

Her body pushed to the verge of exhaustion from throwing 255 pitches – not counting warmups – on a hot, sunny afternoon, Sagl sat looking up at everyone around her, soaking it all in.

“You’ve got to want it bad,” said Sagl, her voice raspy from yelling encouragement and instructions to her teammates. “I just wanted that so bad. That team’s worked so hard. I just really wanted it so bad for them. We had to dig deep for that one.”

Any deeper and Sagl might have had to apply for a Marcellus Shale drilling permit.

Thanks to Sagl and some timely hitting, the Vulcans lived to fight another day, winning a pair of games against a gutsy Charleston squad, 1-0 and 3-2, at the NCAA Division II Softball Atlantic Regional Tournament Sunday.

The victory improves California to 39-11. More importantly, it advances the Vulcans to the NCAA Super Regional Friday at Lilley Field against West Virginia Wesleyan, a 10-2 winner over Seton Hill Sunday in the other pod of the Atlantic Regional. Cal defeated West Virginia Wesleyan, 7-3, in Florida in early March.

On the line is a spot in the World Series May 21-25 in Oklahoma City.

If Sagl pitches as she did Sunday, the Vulcans will be tough to beat.

A junior right-hander, Sagl threw six no-hit innings in the first game before finally allowing a base hit in the sixth as she outdueled Charleston’s Courtney Fain, who had beaten the Vulcans 5-2 Saturday to knock them into the losers’ bracket.

“Alex Sagl’s our horse; that’s no secret,” said California head coach Rick Bertagnolli. “We’re going with her until she tells me she can’t go.”

As good as Sagl was, Fain matched her until facing California freshman shortstop Emily Price with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Price hammered a 2-2 pitch over the right-field fence for a home run and the game’s only run.

“The feeling was that we were just going to do it,” said Price, who made a number of fine defensive plays in the second game.

After winning the first game, there was little doubt who was getting the ball for Cal in the second game.

“I knew he was going to ask me,” said Sagl, who improved to 25-4. “So I knew I had to give him a, ‘Yeah, I got it.’ I had to believe in myself and believe in the team.”

Charleston head coach Raymond Loeser, whose team finishes its season at 38-14, went in a different direction. Instead of going with Fain, who had limited the Vulcans to three runs in two games, he decided to start freshman Jessie Rowe in the circle.

“They hadn’t seen Jessie Rowe,” Loeser said. “The thought was never there (to start Fain). The fact that she was able to go in there and only give up one run over four-plus innings is a credit to her.”

The decision looked fine until the third inning, when Price led off with a single up the middle. Lindsay Reicoff, who was walked by the Golden Eagles nine times in 10 plate appearances after homering in the first inning Saturday, was intentionally walked, and Natalya Smarra forced Reicoff on a fielder’s choice. With runners on first and third, Jacquelyn Fowler and Hailey Wilson followed with back-to-back RBI singles to give Cal a 2-0 lead and chase Rowe. Fain got a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.

Sagl and Fain resumed their weekend duel, with the only run the latter allowed the rest of the way coming on freshman left fielder Courtney Sinclair’s first career home run. The bomb over the right-field fence by the diminuative lefthander made it 3-0 in the fourth inning.

“That was a big time for her to get her first homer,” said Bertagnolli. “And it ended up being the game-winning run.”

Calfornia appeared to score two more runs in the sixth when Wilson doubled off the fence in centerfield but she was called out for batting out of order. Bertagnolli used a pinch-runner for Wilson in the fifth inning and failed to properly re-enter Wilson.

With Sagl on her game, however, the three runs were enough.

Charleston finally manufactured a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, scoring on a bases-loaded walk and a fielder’s choice, but Sagl struck out leadoff hitter Rachelle Toppings to end the threat, then mowed down the Golden Eagles’ 2-3-4 hitters via strikeouts to end the game.

Sagl allowed six hits, seven walks and two earned runs in 14 innings, striking out 19.

“In the first game, she just shut us down,” Loeser said. “She showed why she’s the region pitcher of the year and an All-American. Hats off to her. In the second game, you saw how gutsy she is, to go out there. I bet she threw 300 pitches today.”

Not quite, but she would have, if necessary.

“I knew I had to leave it all out there and pitch my best and see what came out of it,” Sagl said. “I’m going to go to bed and sleep a long time.”

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