Mikey Likes It

Glendora, CA - In the bottom of the eighth inning, with freshman Marcos Campos standing on third base, one out on the scoreboard, and the game all tied at up 8-8 against SoCal #3 College of the Canyons, Citrus College sophomore short stop Michael Carlos came to the plate looking give the Owls a chance to win the game with just three outs in the top of the ninth. Mikey liked the first pitch he saw, laced it into right field, plating Campos and driving in the game winner in Thursday's 9-8 win over the Cougars. 

The game was exciting nearly from the jump. Citrus scored the game's first two runs thanks in large part to fielding miscues by Canyons in the bottom of the second. The Owls would load the bases up with no outs, but needed an error by the Cougars at short stop to score freshman Francisco Ramirez and a double play to score freshman Steven Mendoza to get anything out of it.

Still a lead was a lead, and the Owls extended it with four more runs in the bottom of the third, all of them coming with two outs. Sophomore Ryan Aguilar got the party started when he hit a triple on a 3-1 pitch, and then scored moments later on a wild pitch by the Cougars. After Ramirez and Mendoza followed that up with two more singles, freshman Kyosuke Ushimaru tripled to right-center field to add to more scores. Two pitches later, sophomore Jonathan Ayala hit a single back up the middle to score Ushimaru from third and give the Owls a 6-0 lead.

The seemingly large lead lasted all of two innings as Canyons roared back with their vaunted offense that was every bit as good as advertised. Canyons would load up the bases with no outs and then get a sacrifice fly, RBI single to center field, and then a 3-run home run to left-center to make it 5-6. The Cougars weren't done yet though as they scored another run on another single to tie the game up at six through five innings of competition.

Canyons would briefly take the lead in the top of the sixth when they scored a run via a sacrifice fly. Sophomore Joshua Chua answered right back though, hitting a one out solo bomb to left field that knotted the game back up at 7. The Cougars would again try to wrestle control of the game from the Owls with a score in the top of the seventh, but the Owls had another answer when another error by Canyons led to a score by Carlos to tie the game up at 8-8.

After Canyons had crossed home plate in three straight innings from the fifth to the seventh, sophomore Joseph Morreale. In the top of the eighth, Morreale sat the Cougar's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd hitters down in order and all via strikeout to keep the game tied at eight. In the bottom half of the inning, Campos would lead it off with a double to left field, moving to third on a groundout by sophomore Rudy Casarez III. That's when Carlos came to the plate and hit the game winner putting Citrus up by a score.

In the top of the ninth, Morreale went to work again, getting the first two batters to fly out deep to left and center fields respectively. The final batter of the game, Morreale got out via yet another K, sealing the win.

With the win, Citrus improves to 8-6-1 on the season and 1-1 in WSC South play. The Owls will travel back to Santa Clarita on Saturday for the rubber match between the Owls and Cougars in what could be a crucial early conference schedule contest. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 PM.