At right: Long Beach pitcher Taylor Petty. Photo courtesy Big West Conference.

Kim Sowder’s spring break plans are well; to give her kids a break. They don’t play until next Saturday when they open Big West conference action at her only other coaching stop, the University of the Pacific. Kim has been at the Beach since the late 80’s, got her degree in 1991, but took sort of a coaching internship in Stockton before becoming the top assistant to Pete Manarino in 1996. In 2007, it was a no-brainer to pick Sowder as head coach where she now has a shining record of 151-99. The latest numbers grew with sweep weeks like this one, double-header wins over Ohio on Wednesday and a pair of 4-0 shutouts over Canisius Friday afternoon.
 
As is Sowder’s style, the Niners (22-10) won with pitching and defense. The remarkable freshmen Erin Jones-Wesley (11-3) and junior Taylor Petty threw back-to-back complete game shutouts and on a cool and windy day the Beach gals ran down all but one of the Gold Griffins swats. Sophomore Bree Stephan paced the 49ers’ offense with three hits in the two games. Liz Javier, Caitrin DeBaun and Dana Garcia each had two hits. Canisius fell to 10-8.

Javier’s sac fly scored Stephan in the first, and in the second Stephan clutched with a two-out RBI single to center scoring freshman catcher Karli Sandoval, and then the Beach marketing brass bought dinner for everybody when a pair of home runs (each worth an In N Out double-double) stretched the lead to 4-0. The chow came off the bats of St. Germain and Javier. St. Germain’s was her team-leading sixth of the season and the 14th of her career (good for fifth on the all-time LBSU career home run list).

In game two, Petty (4-4) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before giving up a double to Valorie Nappo but it certainly didn’t spoil her day when she struck out seven Griffins. St. Germain drove in the first run on a bases-loaded sac fly to center scoring Stephan who led off the inning with a base hit. Megan Denio, who singled earlier in the inning, was sent home by Sowder on a passed ball to make it 2-0 and more insurance came swiftly when the Sweethearts of Swat added a pair of runs in the bottom of the second (a sac fly by Stephan and a bases loaded walk by De Gaetano).
 
Petty’s mound work was sort of typical for her, throwing a lot of inside and outside drop pitches with that nasty spinning action (which is a footnote for the Wednesday story when the wet grounds made her spinner ineffective). Game time was a mere 78 minutes and when you have seven K’s and your team gives you four runs early, we’ll pretend it’s your birthday and head off to that popular off campus saloon the Gaslight and sign some autographs. Actually, Friday was Petty’s 21st birthday so she was legal and the autographs were on her credit card receipts.
 
Teammates gave her a big batch of cupcakes (I liked the green ones best) but that is sort of typical of softball spirit. “This team gets along very well,” Sowder said when asked about rotating starters and subs.  The fan support has been pretty steady and even basketball coaches Jody Wynn and Dan Monson left their palatial offices for some aluminum stand time on the first base side. “That was pretty nice,” Sowder said, perhaps aware that both coaches have daughters who might someday, well, might some day.
 
Now after, some say “overly lavish” content about Ohio U on Wednesday, I have to be careful in reporting on the visitors although one of my posse from the old days, Joe Santa Maria, is from Buffalo where Canisius is headquartered. The school has had better days athletically says Joe, particularly when they were part of the “Little Three” with St. Bonaventure and Niagara. The downtown area which gave birth to the bar treat of Buffalo Wings (see the Anchor on Main Street) is not so great these days but you will enjoy the roast beef at Schwabl’s (789 Center Rd. on Rt. 16, near Union Rd., W. Seneca). The cuisine is German, Hungarian but stick with anything beef.

Now an errata moment for my Ohio column where some readers (including several in LBSU visors, uniforms and spikes) thought I suggested that Ohio won a game. Not so. Here is my edit of a confusing sentence on the Ohio U trip, “The team is on spring break and won their first two games at the SDSU tourney, beating Harvard and Louisville, but could not overcome the ‘Niners new-found offense, losing 3-0 to freshmen ace Erin Jones-Wesley (a 4 hitter with 7 Ks) in game one. In game two the Bobcats kept chasing Brooke Turner and Petty but LB never gave up their lead and would ultimately win 6-4.”
 
OU lost to UCLA 9-1 Thursday and play Canisius as part of a double header at Fullerton tomorrow.  Peace out.