Story by Long Beach State Sports Information Department

The Long Beach State softball team (2-3) dropped its opening game of the Campbell-Cartier Classic, falling to No. 8 Stanford, 8-3, Friday evening at SDSU Softball Stadium. The game was called after five innings due to rain.

Sophomore Brooke Turner fell to 1-2 on the season after giving up six runs on five hits. Junior Bridgette Pagano also tossed one inning of relief. Missy Penna, meanwhile, picked up the win for the Cardinal, improving to 5-1 on the young season.

Junior Jodi Nakawatase led the 49er attack, going 2-for-2 at the plate with three RBI. Junior Ashley Weber also added a pair of hits.

Stanford (6-1) quickly got on the board in the bottom of the first inning. With one out, the Cardinal strung together three consecutive singles to jump out to a 1-0 advantage before Turner retired the next two batters to end the inning.

LBSU threatened early on, but came up empty-handed, leaving two runners on base in both the first and second innings.

After Stanford built a 4-0 lead on a two-out, three-run home run by Ashley Hansen, the 49ers responded with three runs of their own in the third. Weber and senior Jennifer Griffin led off with back-to-back singles. After Brandy Reyes flied out and Jonae Perez struck out, junior Kristen Pocock drew a walk to load the bases. Nakwatase then came through for The Beach with a bases-clearing double, but was thrown out trying to advance to third on the play.

Turner sent the Stanford hitters down in order in the bottom half of the inning, but the Cardinal came back in the fourth to put four more runs on the board.

Long Beach State is slated to continue play at the Campbell-Cartier Classic with two games on Saturday. The 49ers open the doubleheader with a 9 a.m. showdown against Utah State before taking on UC Santa Barbara at 2 p.m.