Cerritos Spoils Owls Season Opener Late

Norwalk, CA - The Citrus College Softball team, ranked #8 in the State and #4 in Southern California in the California Community College Softball Coaches Association Pre-Season Poll, had their season opener spoiled on Wednesday afternoon when they travelled to pre-season State #10 and SoCal #6 Cerritos College. The Falcons scored twice in the bottom of the sixth against the Owls, in what turned into a 4-6 loss. 

 Cerritos would fire the opening salvo on the day, getting a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the first to take an early 1-0 lead. The Owls would come right back in the top of the second, as freshman Ashley "Nikki" Soto sat in the box for her first collegiate at bat and sent the ball over the left field fence driving in herself and freshman Alyssa Rodriguez.

The inning didn't stop there though as freshman Celine Spathias used a groundout to the second baseman to drive in sophomore Makaele Moore. Sophomore Autumn Bartholomew would step into the batters box next and rope a single to center field driving in fellow soph Kali Smith to put the Owls up 4-1.

Unfortunately for Citrus that would be all the scoring the softball gods had in store for the Owls, while Cerritos would slowly chip away at the lead before taking it for good late. The Falcons would pull to within two scores with a run in the bottom of the second, and then one run with a score via a passed ball in the bottom of the third.

The Owls would manage to keep Cerritos off the base paths bottom of the fourth, but couldn't in the bottom of the fifth when the Falcons tied the game up at 4-4. The Owls would put together their best offensive threat since the second in the top of the sixth, when they put runners on first and second with two outs. Citrus was unable to make anything of it though, sending it to the bottom of the sixth.

The sixth would turn out to be the death knell for the Owls. After Bartholomy moved into the circle with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, she started out the bottom of the sixth well, getting the first two batters to fly out. The next batter hit a go ahead homerun though and two batters later an Owl error led to another run to put Citrus in a two run hole. Citrus would get a two out rally going in the top of the seventh thanks to singles from Bartholomy and freshman Veronica Ortega. The game would end one AB later though via a lineout to centerfield.

With the loss, Citrus drops to 0-1 in the young season. The Owls don't get any rest as they travel to State #2 and SoCal #1 Palomar College on Friday for a double-header with the reigning CCCAA State Champs. Game one is set for a 12:00 PM first pitch.