The objective was simple: win and you’re in.

And that they did.

After losing three games in a row—for the first time all season—the Long Beach State softball team won the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, 5-0, against Pacific to clinch the Big West title and a guaranteed spot in the NCAA softball tournament.

The Friday doubleheader broke the usual Saturday two-game routine and the Niners coaching staff also switched it up starting Bridgette Pagano in the circle on game one rather than regular ace Brooke Turner.

Pagano threw good enough for the win giving only giving up six hits in the extra inning loss for the Niners (38-15, 13-6). Long Beach State matched the Tigers hit total—in a bad way—committing six crucial errors on the field. The left side of the infield had a tough game as shortstop Jessica Beaver and fill-in thirdbaseman Breezy Goad each had two errors.

Franny Morlet was the only ‘Niner with multiple hits in the game going 2 for 4 and Beaver went 1 for 2 with an RBI, one run scored and got hit by a pitch.

Game two brought Brooke Turner back on the “hill” where she struck out eight over seven innings, scattering four hits and making it look effortless in the 5-0 shutout. Head Coach Kim Soder said she was hoping to give her ace a breather from pitching heading into the playoffs but first her right arm was needed to clinch.

Long Beach State scored all of their runs in the fifth, circling the bases like a can opener on a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (the old school one’s). Ashley Levine’s second walk (and great at-bat) with the bases loaded broke the scoreless tie for the “winning run.” Beaver followed with a two-run scoring rope into the right-center gap. Morlet then muscled single to center bringing in one and capping off the five in five. That was more than enough for Turner.

Earlier in the game regular thirdbaseman and slugger Jennifer Griffin led off the bottom of the second with her 32nd walk of the season—thus breaking the 49ers single season record. Griffin, who has been bothered by a hamstring injury from the Fullerton series was taken out of the game after the walk.

The injury forced Coach Sowder to reshuffle her lineup for the day playing the versatile Goad (an outfielder) at thirdbase for both games on Saturday. And despite her two errors in game one, she made all the routine plays and a made a nice play and throw on a slow roller down the line in game two.

Ashley Weber who came in for Griffin as the designated player sparked the five run rally with a bloop single up the middle. The provided some blooper reel material when she dove/tripped a few feet short of third base crawling back to for safety on a play. The team and crowd got a good chuckle of the slide reminiscent of the Willie May Hays slide in “Major League.”

“I think all teams play better when they are loose,” said Kim Sowder when asked about the play. “I  kind off felt that we needed a laugh. Before that it was like ‘pressure, pressure, pressure.’”

True that (inside joke).

Lacy Tyler went 2 for 3 in the game and Beaver added two more RBI’s to her all-time 49er record. She now needs two more RBIs in tomorrow’s senior day to break the single season record.

Tomorrow is the regular season finale for the ‘Niners as they honor their five seniors prior to the 1 p.m. game.

Then the focus will turn to the selection show on Sunday to see where the ‘Niners will end up playing in the regionals of the NCAA tourney that start next weekend.

“We just won the Big West conference,” said an at ease Sowder. “It’s nice to get that out of the way.”

But still the objective remains simple:  Win.