SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco State softball team dropped its first Conference series of the season on Saturday, falling to Cal State San Bernardino by scores of 6-2 and 4-3.
 
Both teams started off the day continuing the postponed game from the day before, which started in the tenth inning tied 10-10. The Coyotes (8-5/3-5 CCAA) led off the inning with a triple off the bat of Samantha Vacko, and Monica Maddox plated her with two down on a single through the left side to make it 11-10 and put the pressure on the Gators (5-8/4-4 CCAA) in the bottom half. Rohrer had ice in her veins as with one out, she ripped a shot to deep right-center for her third home run of the year to tie it 11-11.
 
Jessica Brown answered with a dinger of her own to straightaway center field to regain the Coyote lead in the 11^th, and the defense did the rest in the bottom half to get their first CCAA win of the season.
 
Karla Soto got the start in game one of the doubleheader, with both teams trading offensive opportunities in the first three innings but not adding to the score column.
 
The Coyotes finally broke through in the fourth to take a 2-0 lead. Brianna Quintana dropped a squeeze bunt to score Vacko, and Caitlyn Olan plated Taylor Ancona on a sacrifice fly to right. SF State answered with one in the bottom half, which started with Sara Higa reaching on a hit-by-pitch, and advancing to third two batters later on Kylee Brown's reaching on an error. Higa then came around to score on another error, which was prompted by Brown stealing second.
 
San Bernardino got the run back in the fifth, with Morgan Ratliff leading off with a double and coming around on an error to make it 3-1. SF State answered once again with Madison Collins stealing home to cut it to one.
 
San Bernardino tagged on three in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead into the bottom frame. Sam Drucker tossed a clean 1-2-3 top of the seventh in relief, however the offense couldn't find the runs needed to force extras.
 
Lindsey Cassidy led off game two pitching out of a jam where the Coyotes had a runner on third with one out. The senior got Jessica Brown to pop out and struck out Ancona looking.
 
SF State took a 2-0 lead on Mallory Cleveland's single to right that scored Higa and Hayley Nunes. Collins made a fantastic diving catch in right to retire Vacko to start the second.
 
The Coyotes got on the board in the third to make it 2-2. Nunes led off with a single and came around to score on Katie Rohrer's sacrifice fly to left to regain the Gator lead. Cassidy rolled through the Coyote lineup in the fourth, retiring the visitors in order.
 
San Bernardino found the tying run in the seventh as Dominique Walker doubled home Morgan Ratliff to make it 3-3, and they later took the lead on Vacko's sacrifice fly to score Jamaina Gateb for the 4-3 advantage and eventual victory.
 
Nunes went 4-for-4 in the contest for her third multi-hit game in the last four contests. Cassidy tossed all seven innings for her third complete game of the year. SF State had four errors in the contest, resulting in three unearned runs.
 
Up Next
The Gators host Notre Dame de Namur this Monday, Feb. 19 for a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Live stats will be provided and in-game updates will be available on Twitter at @sfstate_sb.