[Softball] Kuper Shines in Game 1, Hawks Split with HIU

The Lady Hawks faced another opponent just above them in the conference standings in Hope International. Game one was dictated by starting pitcher Kendra Kuper, who had 2 hits, got on base 3 times, scattered only 4 hits for the Lady Royals and struck out 16 batters for a school record. She improved her record to 19-17 for the year and leveled SDC at 19-19 for the year. Hope moved to 22-13 overall and both teams stand at 8-11 in the GSAC heading into the second game.

The first scoring came on a sacrifice fly to score Kendra Kuper, who laced a ground rule double to left center and moved to third on a single by Jojo Nicholas. Alex Barajas got the RBI and SDC got the 1-0 lead.

In the third, the Lady Hawks extended their lead. Nicole Whitney was hit by a pitch and Tori Harris singled to put two on base. Shelbi Evans cleared those two with a one out, bad hop triple to right field. After Jordan Neal was hit by a pitch, Kuper doubled down the right field line to score Evans for a 4-0 lead. With two outs Barajas laced a single to left that got by the left fielder to the fence. Neal and Kuper scored and Barajas ended up at third for the final 6-0 lead.

Game 2:

The second game could not be much different for the Lady Hawks. Hope International's starter, Ale Guillen, pitched a 1 hitter against SDC and contributed a home run and 2 doubles in their offensive attack. In the end, Guillen (10-5) took the 5-inning victory for HIU (23-13, 9-11 GSAC). Kendra Kuper (19-18) took the loss for SDC (19-20, 8-12 GSAC). Jordan Neal broke the no-hitter in the fifth.

Hope scored in 3 innings, starting with 6 in the second inning, but three came in on multi-base errors. Jaslin Rivas drove in 2 runs and Guillen's homer came in the inning. One of the three runs in the third scored on a wild pitch, and Justice Walker and Guillen drove in the other two. The three runs in the fifth started with a single and two walks to load the bases. Then, Chrystal Cano's single led to a throw to the plate to get the runner from second, followed by a couple run-downs. In the run downs, another Lady Royal scored and Cano was tagged out.

The split in these two games puts the double header at Biola on Tuesday in the very important category.