Owls Playoff Hopes Dwindle with Home Loss to Valley

Glendora, CA - The Citrus College Softball team's 2016 playoff hopes took a serious hit on Thursday afternoon when the Owls hosted Los Angeles Valley College in Western State Conference Blue Division play. The Owls couldn't find a hit, and watched those hopes dwindle in a 3-2 loss.

Valley put pressure on the Owls right from the jump putting a pair of runners on base in the to of the first inning. The Monarchs would go on to put ducks on the pond in six out of the seven innings in the game, constantly putting Citrus on their toes.

Despite the constant threat, Citrus managed to avoid total disaster with the exception of the top of the second. That's when LA Valley loaded up the bases with no outs.

The Owls could have possibly gotten out of the inning unscathed, but a wide throw on the initial play to home allowed the first run to score. After that the Monarchs used a sacrifice fly and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded to score twice more and take a 3-0 lead.

Offensively, Citrus had just two base runners up until the bottom of the sixth inning. Freshman Celine Spathias had the Owls' first and only hit for a while when she hit a single to center field in the bottom of the first, and freshman Jade Nua got on the bases when she was hit by a pitch to lead the off the bottom of the second.

Neither of those two got past first base though, and the Owls didn't put together a legitimate threat until the bottom of the sixth. Freshman Erin Murphy led the inning off by reaching via an error. Sophomore Haley Gomez would move her two second on a single to right field, giving Citrus their best opportunity of the day.

With runners on first and second, the rails came off for the Owls, when a botched bunt that was popped up led to Gomez getting doubled up at first. Murphy would score Citrus' first run, but it was only thanks to another error by LA Valley on a hard ground ball by Spathias.

Trailing 3-1, the Owls needed a miracle in the bottom of the seventh. Nua got the Owls hopes back up with a monster solo shot to right field to start the inning off. That was it for the Owls though as Citrus fell on a pair of groundouts and a strikeout looking.

With the loss, Citrus falls to 16-22 on the season and 11-8 in WSC Blue play. Citrus isn't completely out of the playoff picture yet, but they will need a lot of help. If Antelope Valley and Bakersfield split their double-header and Tuesday, Citrus vaults themselves back into the picture, but first things first, Citrus will have to take care of their own business when they host a good Los Angeles Mission College squad who already beat the Owls earlier this year. Game one of their double-header with the Eagles is set for a 1:00 PM start on Tuesday.