Owls End Slide with Win Over West LA

Glendora, CA - The results hung in the balance for much of the game, but the Citrus College Baseball team was finally able to stop their six game slide on Tuesday afternoon when they hosted visiting West Los Angeles College in WSC South action. The Owls broke the losing streak via unconventional means, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth, none via a hit or error in a 4-1 victory.

West LA scored the game's first run of the afternoon, plating a base runner off a double play in the top of the first. Despite the early run, Citrus buckled down and shut the Wildcat offense down the rest of the way. Citrus meanwhile wouldn't manage to tie the game up until the bottom of the fourth when sophomore Joseph Morreale doubled to left field to bring in sophomore Joshua Chua.

The Owls would be left in the dark for the next three innings until they finally broke the 1-1 tie in the bottom of the eighth. The first run in the inning came off a sacrifice fly to center field from Chua that scored freshman Marcos Campos.

After that things got weird. With runners on the corners, Morreale would get hit to load the bases up. Freshman Garrett Barnes would be brought in to pinch hit and he drew a bases loaded walk to make it 3-1. Two pitches later, freshman Steven Mendoza would also be pelted by a pitch, the second batter of the inning to do so, bringing in freshman Kyosuke Ushimaru and making it 4-1.

In the top of the ninth, freshman Joshua Aguilar shut down any hope getting a pop-up and a pair of strike outs to end the game. Aguilar would end up with the win, pitching the last 3.1 innings, giving up just one hit and one walk, while getting seven of the ten batters he faced out, via a strikeout.

With the win, Citrus improves to 12-18-1 overall and 5-11 in WSC South Play. The Owls will be back in action on Thursday when they travel to Culver City for a 2:30 PM first pitch at West Los Angeles College.