Owls Blow Another Late Lead

Bakersfield, CA -- For the second time in the last week, the Citrus College Baseball team gave up a late lead and suffered another defeat. Citrus gave up six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, surrendering a 5-4 lead in what ended up to be a 10-5 loss.

Citrus jumped all over the Renegades from the start scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. Freshman Joshua Page hit an RBI single to center, and sophomore Warren Fishback hit an RBI single to put the Owls up 2-0 early. Freshman Jason De La Pena drove in the final run of the inning, giving Citrus a health 3-0 run from the get go.

The Owls added a single run in each of the second and fourth innings, thanks to an score from freshman Nathan Virgen in the second and RBI groundout from freshman Rodnee Little in the fourth that made it 5-1 Citrus. After that, the Owls offense sputtered stranding five runners in the final five innings.

Bakersfield meanwhile chipped away at their deficit, scoring two runs in the sixth, and another in the seventh to cut to a single score lead for the Owls. In the eighth, Citrus imploded giving up those six scores as they fell by five.

Freshman Nathan Virgen continued to stay hot at the plate for the Owls in the loss, going 4 for 4 at the plate. Fishback finished 2 for 5, while sophomore Blake James was 2 for 4.

With the loss, Citrus drops to 8-7 on the year and 2-4 in WSC South play. The Owls will try and reverse their current four game skid on Saturday when they hit the road to take on College of the Canyons. First pitch is set for 1:00 PM in Santa Clarita.