CLAREMONT, Calif. – Pomona Pitzer College pulled out a couple of close wins on Friday as the Sagehens defeated the Yellowjackets in a doubleheader. Pomona Pitzer won the opener, 4-3 and took the nightcap, 5-3. Rochester has one more DH on its week-long trip to the West Coast. UR will play at Whittier College on Saturday (4 pm and 6 pm Eastern Time) before returning to western New York State.
 
A number of first-year players are picking up valuable playing experience during this week-long trip. Four members of the Class of 2025 were in the starting lineup on Friday.
 
Game One:
Pomona-Pitzer 4, Rochester 3: Rochester took a lead in the third inning. Madi Turner was hit by a pitch. She was sacrificed to second base on a bunt from Lauren West. Loren Castilloux reached on a fielder's choice and Ally Kim followed with a double to right centerfield. Bailey Nicholoff hit a hard grounder towards the hole at short. Kim tried to advance, but was thrown out at third.
 
The Sagehens tied the score in the bottom of the third on a two-out solo HR. They scored three runs in the fourth to take the lead for good. A double, an error (which plated the run) and a two-run HR put the hosts ahead, 4-1. UR pulled a run back in the fifth. Gilbreath singled with one down and was bunted up a base by Turner. West hit in the lineup spot for Keys and grounded out, moving Gilbreath to third. She scored on Castilloux's single.
 
Keys was replaced on the mound by West. She recorded three straight outs in the fourth, but left after allowing two hits to open the fifth. Abbie Biggs came on, She yielded a sac bunt, then hit a batter to load the bases. Biggs calmly worked out of it getting two popups.
 
Rochester threatened in the sixth – a base hit and an HBP, but the Sagehens worked out of it. In the seventh, pinch-hitter Jenna Gorecki singled. Samantha Nowak pinch-hit and bunted her to second. Castillloux's groundout moved her to third and she sored when Kim's infield grounder was booted.
 
Game Two:
Pomona-Pitzer 5, Rochester 3: UR led, 2-0, in the third, saw the Sagehens tie it. The Jackets went ahead, 3-2, in the fifth before the hosts tied it on an unearned run in the fifth and went ahead on two more unearned runs in the sixth.
 
Kim hit her second HR of the spring, this one in the third inning for a 1-0 lead. West doubled, advanced on a passed ball, and scored on Keiper's single. P-P's Katy Hurley and Hannah Bragkovich hit solo home runs in the home fourth (2-2).
 
In the fifth, Kim singled and stole second. Nicholoff reached on an error with Kim moving to third. Nicholoff stole second. West's groundout scored Kim and put Nicholoff on third. Two more groundouts ended the inning with no other runs coming home.
 
Emily Sharlach recorded the first two outs of the fifth, before four straight hitters reached, beginning with an infield error. A single and consecutive walks brought home the tying run.
 
UR went three up and three down in the sixth. In the home half, a single and sac bunt put a runner at second with one gone. Sharlach fanned a pinch-hitter but an error and a double scored the two runs that determined the outcome.