Pirates battle back, but fall late to Lancers
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Orange Coast | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
|
Pasadena City | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
PASADENA -- The Orange Coast College softball team has already had a season's worth of tough losses through this early portion of the 2023 season and Monday's 4-3 setback at Pasadena City College was no exception.
OCC (1-6) trailed 3-0 in the first inning, only to fight back and even things at 3. In the top of the fourth, Ariana Williams led off with a solo home run to right to get things going. Hailey Pichardo followed with a single before being replaced by Eva Marin on the bases. Natasha Ellison brought in Marin two batters later with an RBI-single to center to trim the OCC deficit to 3-2.
Williams again would spark the Pirates' offense in the sixth. She singled to lead things off, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Pichardo, moved to third on a PCC fielding error and stole home to bring the Pirates back even at 3-3.
After PCC's three-run first, OCC starting pitcher Isabel McCoy did a solid job of keeping the Lancers (6-5) off of the scoreboard over the next five innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits with a pair of strikeouts.
But in the bottom of the seventh, a walk, a hit and a sacrifice bunt was followed by a game-winning, RBI-single by Jaimie Harris, to give PCC the victory.
Williams went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, while Pichardo went 2-for-2 for the Pirates.
Coast will return home and host Saddleback College in an Orange Empire Conference matchup on Wednesday, beginning at 2 p.m.
