Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ARCATA – Long live the long ball.
 
Humboldt State pounded out five home runs in a doubleheader sweep (5-0, 11-3) of Dominican University in non-conference softball action on Wednesday.
 
The Jacks, who are ranked fifth in the nation with 1.43 home runs per game, had four different players go deep against Dominican (4-18 overall). Megan Wink had a pair of homers in the second game, one a grand slam.
 
“It felt so good,” Wink said. “I was facing slower pitching today so you have to wait a second longer. And I just saw the ball and hit it. It felt great, but I didn't even feel like got the whole thing. But I hit it over and got to walk around all the bases.”
 
“We had some good hits,” said HSU head coach Frank Cheek. “That first game all runs were scored from home runs. Then Wink comes back in this game and hits a grand slam, and it's tough to play catch-up when that happens.”
 
Hannah Williams, ranked 19th in the nation in RBIs per game, hit a 250-foot rope over the left field fence in the first game that did not get more than 10-feet off the ground. 
 
In the fifth inning, Serena Aragones hit a long fly with the bases loaded that bounced on top of the fence, and then over. The 5-0 score was the final margin as Lizzie Perez pitched six shutout innings and Williams pitched a scoreless seventh.
 
“During my first at-bats I was playing where my comfort zone is, which is usually far back, so I decided to get out of my zone,” Aragones said. “I scooted forward, and I'm glad I did because if I was still back there, I don't know if that would have gone over.”
 
“It doesn't come any closer than that,” Cheek said of the Aragones grand slam. “I thought it was going to teeter on the fence, and it could have gone either way  - but it fell our way.”
 
Perez (8-4) came on in relief in the second game to get the win, pitching a perfect 1.1 innings after starter Katie Obbema gave up a two-run homer in the third to Ashlyn Moriarity. On the day Perez pitched 7.1 innings of shutout ball with five strikeouts and one walk.
 
In addition to Wink's pair of homers, Chrissy Stalf hit a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the first in the second game. It was the 37th of her career, tying Natalie Galletly for second on HSU's all-time home run list.
 
Humboldt, 14-9 overall, returns to California Collegiate Athletic Association action on Friday with a doubleheader at home against Cal State Stanislaus. The first game begins at 1 p.m.