Owls White Knuckle Win Over LA Mission; Move Into 3-Way Tie for Second Place

Sylmar, CA — The Citrus College Baseball team built up a big lead on Saturday afternoon when they travelled to take on red-hot Los Angeles Mission College in WSC South action. It was white knuckle affair for the Owls who had to hold on for a 10-9 victory and move into a three-way tie for second place in the WSC South. 

 The Owls wasted little time in jumping all over the Eagles. Sophomore Brendan Campbell drove in the games first run in the top of the first with a  sacrifice fly to left field that brought in sophomore Richard Chavez. A few pitches later, freshman Jonathan Ayala would single to left and score sophomore Troy Resch to make it 2-0 early.

LA Mission would get one run back in the bottom of the first, but Citrus again scored twice in the top of the second. Sophomore Taylor Grace singled to left field to plate freshman Michael Carlos. Soon after that freshman Rudy Casarez III would score stealing home on a double-steal. In the top of the third, the Owls ran the double steal again, this time with sophomore Shawn Sweeney nabbing second and Ayala coming home.

Ayala would be responsible for two more runs in the top of the fifth when he drove in two with a single to center field to make it 7-1. Citrus kept piling on, in the top of the fifth, when Grace hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Carlos.

Mission would make their move in the bottom of the sixth plating a pair of runs to make it 8-3. Citrus got one of those runs back in the top of the eighth though when Resch lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Grace at made it 9-3.

As it turned out, Citrus would need every bit of those runs. Mission would go on to score six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the game up headed into the final frame. Grace came through in the clutch for the Owls though in the top of the ninth singling in freshman Joshua Chua to make it 10-9.

Sophomore Nicholas Sergi, who came in with one out in the bottom of the eighth, got the first Eagle to line out in the bottom of the ninth. After that, Sergi gave up a walk and a hit, but then got the next batter to line out. On the line out, the Eagles tried to tag up from second, but the base runner was hosed at third, by Chavez in right field to end the game.

With the win, Citrus snapped LA Mission's seven game win streak. The Owls are now tied for second place with both Mission and LA Valley with three games left in the regular season. Citrus (18-14-1, 11-7) will host the Eagles on Tuesday, with a 2:30 PM first pitch.