Champs

Glendora, CA -- The Citrus College Softball team earned their first Western State Conference Blue Division Conference Championship in seven years on Tuesday afternoon. The Owls swept Santa Monica, and got some help across the conference and will enter the post-season as the top seed out of the division.

It took Citrus a little while to get going on Tuesday, but once they did, they were like a runaway freight train. The Owls didn't score until the bottom of the third inning of game one. Trailing 0-1, freshman Erinn Jaramillo hit a solo shot to left field on the first pitch she saw to even the game up at 1-1. A few AB's, later Citrus capitalized on an error by the Corsairs when sophomore Arianna Sanchez scored from second to go up 2-1. Before the inning was up, sophomore Raeleen Tellez would pick up an RBI with a fielder's choice that scored freshman Raven Preseau.

Citrus kept it going in the bottom of the fourth. Jaramillo reached on an error by the Santa Monica shortstop that scored sophomore Sara Moore. Sophomore Victoria Baltazar scored a few plays later on a passed ball, and then Jaramillo scored shortly thereafter thanks to a RBI groundout by Sanchez.

With plenty of runs behind her, Sanchez had a strong showing in the circle. Sanchez surrendered just two total hits and walked two batters. The one run she surrendered was unearned, and she struck out a pair as she improved to 13-6 on the year.

In the bottom of the fifth, Citrus ended the game early. Moore belted a double down the right field line that scored Tellez and sophomore Alyssa Lozano. Baltazar would end the game two pitches later when she lifted a deep fly ball to center field that plated sophomore Christina Skelton and made it 9-1.

The Owls picked up right where they left off in game number two. Freshman Valerie Velasquez drove in the game's first run in the bottom of the first with an RBI single that scored Baltazar. Freshman Miranda Gil than drove in a run on a fielder's choice to put Citrus up 2-0 early.

Citrus scored twice more in each of the second and third innings. In the second the two scores came via a solo shot from Preseau and an infield RBI single from Baltazar. In the third it was Gil, who hit a two run blast to left-center that scored both her and freshman Bobbi Stalnaker.

Gil helped her own cause on the day, as she got the start in the circle in game two. Gil was strong giving up just one hit and three runs, only one of which was earned. Gil did walk an uncharacteristically high five batters, but also struck out six on her way to moving to 12-7 on the year.

Gil added three more runs to her cause in the bottom of the fourth with a three run home run to center field that scored herself, Jaramillo, and freshman Megan Troutman. Jaramillo would make it 10-3 in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single to left field, only to see Gil end the game early three at bats later with walk-off single to left field. On the game, Gil was 3 for 4 with two runs and seven RBI's.

With the two wins, Citrus improves to 27-13 overall and 17-4 in WSC Blue play. All that awaits the Owls now is there post-season seed, which will be announced on Saturday.