Momentum

San Jacinto, CA -- The Citrus College Baseball team headed out to Mt. San Jacinto College on Saturday afternoon to finish up their Thursday contest that was halted due to rain, and participate in a previously scheduled CCCAA contest. The Owls ended up losing the first contest 9-8, but picked up serious momentum with eight runs in the bottom of the eighth, before going on to win 9-3 in the second game.

Game number one on the day actually started on Thursday in Glendora. In the rainy weather, the Owls spotted the Eagles five runs headed into the sixth inning, before the game was halted due to the weather. The game picked up right where it left off on Saturday afternoon, and Citrus watched as Mt. San Jacinto extended their lead with another run in the seventh and three more in the eighth.

Trailing 9-0, the Owls put together a huge ninth inning. Sophomore Joseph DeFazio got the ball rolling with a two RBI double. Sophomore Nathan Virgen followed that up with an RBI single, only to see freshman Troy Resch get an RBI groundout. After that it was freshman Richard Chavez's turn to drive in a run with an RBI single, followed by a run scoring thanks to an error by the Eagles to make it 9-6. Freshman Mason Jandro followed that up with a two RBI single to pull the Owls to within one, but the rally fell just short.

That momentum proved important though as the Owls took it into game two. Mt. San Jacinto started the game off with the game's first score in the bottom of the first, but Citrus came right back with three in the top of the second. The first run was via an Eagle error, but the next two came off the bats of freshman Aaron Torres and sophomore Jonathon Reynoso who both hit RBI singles to put Citrus up 3-1.

Freshman Taylor Grace tacked on another run in the top of the fourth with an RBI single, only to see it matched by Mt. San Jacinto in the bottom half of the inning. Jandro would drive in another Citrus run in the top of the fifth on an RBI groundout, but again the Eagles matched it. Citrus would really pull away in the top of the seventh, when freshman Matthew Reynoso hit a two RBI double and Virgen and Resch both drew bases loaded RBI walks to put Citrus up 9-3.

Freshman Sean Patton would get the win in game two, pitching three and two-thirds innings of relief surrendering just one hit, no walks, and striking out six.

With the win, and the loss, Citrus moves to 3-4 on the year. The Owls will be on the road for the next two weeks starting this coming week. The roadie starts on Tuesday when they travel to Oxnard College for a 2:00 PM start.