AKAI & PETERSON BLAST HOMERS; BERRIATUA WINS NO. 16; #1CSM 23-0 WITH 7-0 WIN AT HARTNELL

COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO SPORTS NEWS                               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE            March 10, 2015

Contact: Fred Baer          baerf@smccd.edu

AKAI & PETERSON BLAST HOMERS; BERRIATUA WINS NO. 16; #1CSM 23-0 WITH 7-0 WIN AT HARTNELL

Leilani Akai and Christy Peterson slugged home runs and Lauren Berriatua won a state-leading 16th game as top-ranked College of San Mateo ran its season-opening winning streak to 23 games with a 7-0 Coast Conference North softball victory at Hartnell College in Salinas Tuesday afternoon.

Berriatua and Lacie Crawford combined for a 1-hitter and Akai smacked her eighth home run, second in Northern California only to state-leading teammate Harlee Donovan (15). Akai and Peterson each went 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Akai scored twice.

Berriatua, who allowed just one hit over five innings, aided her own cause with a triple and a double and scored a run. She is now hitting .556 and slugging 1.058 -- while having the state's lowest earned run average, 0.26.

Donovan had a good day, hitting a pair of singles to increase her state hits lead to 39; also scoring twice to up her total there to 37. That ranks No. 3 in the state -- where teammate Kaylee Smith leads with 40 runs. Riley Wells had a double, went 2-for-4, and scored twice.

CSM (23-0, 6-0 Coast North) is again a unanimous No. 1 choice among the state's 80 community college softball teams in this week's coaches poll, with Palomar (15-1-1) in San Marcos No. 2

Hartnell fell to 4-14 (1-5 Coast South).

--The Bulldogs next visit another Coast South teams, No. 6 state-ranked Cabrillo (16-5), on  Thursday in Aptos at 3 p.m.