Riverside Bested in Late Game Offensive Melee
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fullerton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 1 |
|
Riverside | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 2 |
The Riverside City College softball team began Orange Empire Conference (OEC) action on Wednesday night as they hosted the defending champion Fullerton College Hornets on home turf. The Tiger bats came alive late in the game, but the Hornets landed the final blow leading to a 7-6 loss.
It was slow moving in the first three frames as freshman starting pitcher Jazmine Lara held the Hornets scoreless through the first three innings. They threatened on multiple occasions, but Lara was able to wiggle out of two early jams and retired the side in order in the top of the third inning.
The Tigers etched their first run in the bottom of the second inning on an errant throw from the Hornets first baseman, allowing freshman third baseman Cheyanne Becerra to score and grabbed an early 1-0 lead.
Fullerton woke up on offensive and plated a combined four runs in the fourth and fifth innings capped by a two-run homerun to grab a 4-1 lead.
Nevertheless, the Tigers went to work and pushed across a run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-out double from the red-hot freshman second baseman Sarah Franco-Colis. Riverside tied the game up the ensuing frame with a two-run blast compliments of freshman first baseman Alicia Fitzgerald to notch the game up at four-all.
Despite the late-game fireworks, the Hornets put up three more runs in the top of the seventh inning which dug too deep of a hole for the Tigers to crawl out of. They put up a fight by scoring two runs in the bottom half of the inning via a RBI single from Fitzgerald and a sacrifice ground out from Becerra, but Riverside left the game-tying run stranded on second base leading to the defeat.
Lara (3-3) was tagged with the loss after going the distance. She gave up seven runs off 13 hits and struck out three batters.
Fitzgerald went 2-for-4 with a two-run homerun, three RBI and a run scored. Sa. Franco Colis finished 1-for-3 with a double and a RBI, while freshman center fielder Tessah Black and Becerra each barreled two hits and scored once.