Saving Grace
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Rio Hondo | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 4 |
|
Citrus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 9 | 8 | 5 |
Glendora, CA -- The 2015 Citrus College Baseball season didn't get off to the best start, after the Owls gave up six unearned runs in the top of the first inning of their game against SoCal #9 Rio Hondo College. Citrus didn't panic though and got some big plays from sophomore Taylor Grace, who helped save the day for the Owls in what ended up a 9-8 victory for Citrus.
The aforementioned first inning got off to a poor start when a pair of errors were compounded by three straight singles by the Roadrunners to extend that 6-0 first inning lead. Offensively, Citrus struggled to get going being no-hit four innings. Citrus' luck finally began to turn in the bottom of the fifth, when sophomore catcher Shawn Sweeney got on first thanks to an error on a bang, bang play. That was followed by sophomore Richard Chavez and freshman Michael Carlos getting hit in back to back at bats to load up the bases with no outs.
That's when Grace came to the plate. With the bases juiced and runners everywhere, Grace jolted the Owls right back into the game when he crushed a pitch over the left-center field fence to make it 6-4. Citrus would keep it going after that. Sophomore Aaron Torres drew a walk, followed by sophomore Troy Resch singling down the right field line, pushing Torres to third on some heads up base running. That brought freshman Ryan Aguilar to the plate, where he promptly tripled to right field driving in Resch and Torres and tying the game up.
Citrus still wasn't done. Freshman Jonathan Ayala would hit a single down the left-field line to bring in Aguilar giving their first lead of the game 7-6. Two at bats later, Chavez put the Owls up by two with a single back up the middle of the field that scored Ayala and made it 8-6.
After the rough first inning in which he gave up six unearned runs and six hits, sophomore Sean Patton found his groove over the next three innings of work. Patton gave up just one more hit, walked one batter, and struck out three after settling in. In the fifth, Patton gave way to sophomore Matthew Page, who was solid in his 1.2 innings of work, striking out a pair of batters and surrendering just one hit.
Facing a tough situation in the top of the sixth with two outs, a runner on, and Rio Hondo's heart of the order at the plate, Head Coach Steve Gomez handed the ball to sophomore Marcos Martinez. Martinez didn't disappoint striking out the next batter and then finishing up the game over the next three innings.
Martinez (1-0) did allow a pair of runs to score in the top of the eighth inning, but it was again Citrus fielding miscues that ultimately led to the game being tied up at 8-8. The Owls came right back in the bottom of the eighth and again sparked by Grace, scratched out a run after a Grace lead-off single and then a groundout RBI by Aguilar three at bats later.
With the win, Citrus improves to 1-0 on the year. The Owls will be back at home on Wednesday when they host Los Angeles Pierce College (0-1), ranked #16 in the pre-season coaches poll at 2:00 PM.
