Harlie Collier blasted a grand slam home run for Lamar State College Port Arthur as the Seahawks coasted to a Game 2 10-0 win over Baton Rouge Community College on Monday afternoon, making for a doubleheader split after the Bears took a first-game 7-4 victory.
The Seahawks, now 11-15 for the season, have won six of their last seven games heading into a critical NJCAA Region 14 showdown with conference front-runner San Jacinto College-South. That doubleheader, set for 1 and 3 p.m. at Martin Field, is scheduled for this Wednesday, weather permitting.
Collier, who caught both ends of Monday's doubleheader, finished the day 4 for 6 with a home run, a triple and five runs batted in.
Baton Rouge CC 7, LSCPA 4
The Seahawks fell behind early, came back to tie the game but then let it get away as BRCC scored five runs in the fifth and sixth innings of the first game of Monday's doubleheader.
Trailing 2-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning, the Hawks rebounded for two runs to tie the game at 2 apiece. Anissa Gracia led off the inning with aa walk, moving to second base on a Riana Tovar sacrifice bunt. Savannah Trahan doubled to left to score Gracia and Trahan later came home on a two-out single by Cameron Niedenthal for the 2-2 tie.
The Bears went back up a run, 3-2, in the fifth and then added four more runs in the top of the sixth for a 7-2 lead.
The Seahawks added a run in the bottom of the sixth after Celeste Salazar led off with a double, moving to third base on a Kaitlyn Samarripa single. Salazar scored when Collier singled to cut the lead to 7-3.
LSCPA edged closer in the bottom of the seventh, adding a run after three straight singles from Gracia, Tovar and Trahan, capped by a sacrifice fly by Salazar. That was as close as the Hawks could manage as the Bears took the non-conference win on the road.
Trahan led at the plate, going 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles, while Collier was 2 for 2.
Kayci Spittler took the loss in the circle for the Hawks, working 5.1 innings, allowing five earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts and six walks. Alexa Garza pitched 1.2 innings, allowing no runs on two hits with two strikeouts and a walk.
LSCPA 10, Baton Rouge CC 0
The Seahawks' bats came alive for Game 2 as LSCPA scored in all four innings at the plate in the run-ruled, five-inning affair.
The Hawks scored two in the first, three in the second, one in the third, and four in the fourth, highlighted by Collier's fourth-inning grand slam home run.
The 13-hit performance by the Seahawks' offense was matched by the pitching heroics of Cameron Niedenthal who earned the complete-game victory after allowing just two hits.
Niedenthal, Salazar, Hollier and Gracia all went 2 for 3 in the game. Niedenthal doubled, Collier tripled and hit her grand slam, while Salazar doubled and homered, and Trahan collected another home run for the season.
Niedenthal threw eight strikeouts to improve her season total to 56 for the year.