GAME ONEAfter Mitchell and the Urban Knights' defense retired the first three batters they faced, ART U went right to work in the bottom of the first with three hits opened by a one-out double from sophomore outfielder
Jessica West. Junior infielder
Taylor Thurman followed that up with a single and the Chaminade right fielder's miscue allowed West to score. Junior catcher
Elise Oldham then drove in Thurman with another single and Academy of Art led 2-0.
Mitchell walked one in the second, but was very sharp and carried a no-hitter into the fourth. By that point the ART U offense had gained a 4-0 lead after senior infielder
Kamyle Glover drove in one with a single in the second inning and an error on another Thurman single allowed Glover to score.
Although Mitchell allowed a hit in the fourth, it was not until the fifth that Chaminade actually scored. A leadoff home run by Jenn Betian made the score 4-1 and yet the Academy of Art freshman came right back to retire six of the next seven batters. In the seventh, another leadoff home run brought the Silverswords one run closer and they brought the tying run to the plate, but Mitchell finished off the 4-2 victory with her sixth strikeout of the day.
Mitchell would gain her 10th win (the sixth pitcher to in the PacWest to do so) while tossing her 11th complete game with the two runs allowed on four hits.
GAME TWOFollowing up Mitchell, Peters showed her own brilliance in the circle by not allowing a hit through her first four innings of the second contest. She faced lone base-runners periodically and relied on her defense down the stretch to continue to post zeroes.
Academy of Art went up 2-0 once again with a RBI double by Thurman and later a run-scoring wild pitch in the first then Peters backed that up with a shutdown inning in the second. She logged her second strikeout to open the frame then Glover and senior infielder
Jasmine Dickenson turned a double play to end it.
In the third, Oldham singled and freshman
Samantha Klune doubled with two down and Dickenson proceeded to double the Knights' lead with a two-run single. Up 4-0, Peters continued to throw effectively and, despite surrendering the no-hitter after a single in the fifth, she induced one more groundout to complete 5.0 scoreless innings with only the one hit.
The bottom of the fifth was particularly exciting as singles by West and Thurman started what would become the game-ending rally. Two more singles by Klune and graduate student catcher
Nirana Singh eventually loaded the bases for sophomore outfielder
Hallie Curtis. She popped one into shallow right field where the Chaminade second baseman dropped the ball, bringing two runs home. Now ahead 7-0, junior outfielder
Andrea Gill proceeded to drive in the eighth run on a single to left, activating the run-rule at 8-0 and giving Academy of Art the day's sweep.
The Urban Knights improve to 14-17 overall and 9-9 in the PacWest with the victories. Offensively, Thurman finished the doubleheader 5-for-6 with a double and two RBIs. Klune was 3-for-3 in the second contest, doubling twice and scoring twice in that one. Oldham had one RBI in each game, going 2-for-6 to push her team-high hit streak to four games. Dickenson (two RBIs), Singh, and Gill each went 2-for-3 in the finale.
Chaminade falls to 7-22 and 6-14 in conference play. The home runs by Betian (1-for-2 on the day) and Amber Manuel led the way and it was Brett Aspel (3-7) who had the Silverswords' best pitching performance of the day, going a complete 6.0 innings with two earned runs allowed on eight hits in game one.
Academy of Art heads into a busy weekend in Turlock for the Tournament of Champions hosted by Cal State Stanislaus. The Urban Knights will play a rare tripleheader on Friday, Mar. 27 against Northwest Nazarene (9:00 a.m.), Central Washington (12:15 p.m.), and Western Oregon (2:15 p.m.) then a doubleheader on Saturday with matchups against Simon Fraser (3:45 p.m.) and Montana State-Billings (6:00 p.m.).
