Coyotes lose 4-2 in West Region tourney

Staff Reports

Former Cal State San Bernardino pitcher Regina Farfan tossed five shutout innings and her Cal State Dominguez Hills teammates gave her a 4-0 cushion Thursday as the Toros beat the Coyotes 4-2 in second round play in the Division II West Region Tournament at Humboldt State.

The Coyotes (35-31-1), making their first appearance in the playoffs, will play an elimination game at 11:30 a.m. today against Seattle University which lost to Cal State Stanislaus 4-0 but beat eliminated Monterey Bay 4-2.

The Toros and Western Oregon, both 2-0, will face off at 2 p.m. today in the winner's bracket. If the Coyotes prevail over Seattle, they would return at 4:30 p.m. Friday to face an opponent in another elimination game.

Farfan (17-9) gave up five hits but no runs and struck out one in her five innings of work. She pitched for the Coyotes as a freshman in 2005 before transferring to San Jose State and later to Dominguez Hills.

Coyotes freshman Cassidy Lee was dominant early, retiring the first nine Toros she faced while Farfan was giving up a hit in each inning to the Coyotes but staying out of trouble.

In the fourth inning, the Toros got a run on three hits. With runners on second and third, Jackie Jacob replaced Lee and gave up a run-scoring single to Katie Garcia. Jacob then struck out two batters with the bases loaded to shut down the rally.

The Toros erupted for five hits and three runs off the normally stingy Tawni Baker to make it a 4-0 game. A Coyote error figured in the scoring as well.

CSUSB's Debbie Shisler finished up in the circle for the Coyotes pitching one and a third innings and giving up one hit.

Kristin Tanaka replaced Farfan in the sixth and the Coyotes finally got on the board in the top of the seventh when Tori Beaudette ripped a home run to left field, her second of the tournament and eighth of the season.

Jacquelyn Holtzclaw then singled to shortstop and advanced to second on a throwing error. Jordan Dahl followed with a sharp single inside the first base line to score Holtzclaw and make it 4-2 with two out.

But Jamie Lowe fouled out to end the game.

CSUSB scored 10 runs on 11 hits including three homers in a 10-1 win over Humboldt State in the tournament opener but mustered only eight hits against Farfan and Tanaka and only one went for extra bases.