All it took was one pitch for the Cal softball team to showcase its power.
In the first home game of the season against the Pacific Tigers, Cheyenne Cordes sent the first pitch in the bottom of the first inning sailing over the left-field fence. The Bears (16-2) would go on to win 7-2 behind four home runs, two coming from the bat of Cordes.
“Generally speaking, I’m an aggressive hitter,” Cordes said. “Going into that at-bat, I was like, ‘If you see it, take it.’”
Ace pitcher Jolene Henderson picked up the win, improving her record to 12-2 on the season. Henderson pitched all seven innings, striking out seven along the way. The All-American gave up nine hits but consistently worked her way out of trouble whenever the Tigers threatened with baserunners.
After Cordes gave the Bears a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Tigers responded in the third. With a runner on first base, Pacific laid down a sacrifice bunt. The ball was fielded cleanly by Henderson, but instead of taking the easy out at first, she threw late to second base.
“I’m not happy about having errors,” Cal coach Diane Ninemire said. “We need to clean up on our defensive mistakes and our decision-making.”
That mental lapse proved to be costly, as the Tigers scored later in the inning on a controversial RBI single by Megan Hom. With a runner on third base, Hom drilled a line drive to the left side of the infield. In a bang-bang sequence, the Bears thought that they had caught the ball for an out, but the umpire ruled that the ball had hit the ground first.
“You have those calls sometimes,” Henderson said. “They either go your way or they don’t go your way. We just made sure that when we got back on the offensive, no one could control the game but us.”
The Bears still only accounted for one hit entering the fourth, but Lindsey Ziegenhirt gave Cal the lead back with her 10th home run on the season. Ziegenhirt set her career high of home runs back in her freshman season with 15. Now, as a senior, she should eclipse that mark with relative ease.
However, with the exception of those two long-balls, Cal’s offense was stymied until the fifth inning.
Following a Pacific error that allowed Khala Taylor to reach first base, Cordes hit a home run again, giving the Bears some much-needed insurance runs. Danielle Henderson would tack on a two-run homer of her own later in the inning to provide the final runs.
“I have a plan to be patiently aggressive and to swing at strikes,” Cordes said. “It doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes you swing at the one over your head, but that’s just my plan, personally.”
Despite being outhit 9-8 by a lesser foe, the Bears demonstrated the importance of having more pop in their bats.
“That’s what makes our team dangerous,” Ninemire said. “Because we have a number of players that can hit home runs, we’re only ever one swing away from winning a game. And that’s a great feeling to have.”
Sean Wagner-McGough covers softball. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @seanjwagner.