Sacrifice
| Final (10) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
LA Valley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
|
Citrus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 1 |
Glendora, CA -- The Citrus College Baseball team snapped a five game losing streak on Tuesday afternoon with a 4-3 10 inning win over visiting LA Valley College. The Owls got it done thanks to their sacrifice, as they laid down a season high five sacrifice bunts, and then got a sacrifice fly from sophomore William Ouellette that drove in the winning run.
The game was a pitcher's duel from the top of the contest, with freshman Ryan Ponder going toe to toe with the Monarch batters. The Owls struck first getting an RBI sacrifice squeeze bunt from sophomore Mike Rowland in the bottom of the fourth inning to go up 1-0.
Valley finally got on the board in the top of the sixth inning, taking advantage of three hits in the inning and a big mental error on the part of the Owls, to pull ahead 3-1. Citrus which has had problems stranding runners all season long, continued to do so until they tied the game up in the bottom of the ninth.
With two outs showing on the scoreboard and runners on second and third, freshman Joshua Page hit a hard ball to the Valley shortstop. The ball was playable, but hit hard and the Monarch shortstop flubbed it, allowing freshman Mathew Reynoso and Ouellette to score and send the game into extra innings.
After freshman Marcos Martinez set down Valley in order in the top of the 10th, sophomore Warren Fishback led the bottom half of the inning off with a single to left. Fishback then stole second, only to see freshman Brandon Benson draw a walk. Reynoso followed that up with one of Citrus' five sacrifice hits to push Benson and Fishback to second and third respectively.
That meant all the Owls needed was a fly ball deep enough to score Fishback. With the count at 1-1, Ouellette did just that with a fly ball to right field, driving in Fishback and giving the Owls the one run victory.
With the win, Citrus improves to 13-20 overall and 7-15 in WSC South play. The Owls will try and keep that going in their final two games of the year, beginning with Thursdays contest at Glendale College. First pitch is set for 2:30 PM.