Glendora, CA (Baseball) – The Citrus College baseball team continued its searing streak as it picked up its 4th win in 5 games as they defeated Fullerton College, ranked 7th in the latest RPI report, 6-5 Saturday afternoon. The Owls scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th to secure the victory.
The Fighting Owls got five and a third strong innings from Shaun Pearce who got his 1st start of the season. Pearce left in the top of the 6th with score tied at 2 and runners on 1st and 3rd. Bradley McGuire relieved Pearce and gave up a 3-run shot to left field to the very first batter he faced. The home-run by Mitch Levier gave the Hornets a 5-2 lead.
Not to be outdone, the Citrus offense took matters into their own hands by making a comeback of their in the bottom of that very same inning. Javier Lizarraga led things off with a 1 out single up the middle to be the first Fighting Owl on base in the bottom of the 6th. Dennis Dunn followed that up with a single to left-field, but the Fullerton left-fielder Cameron Sporrer, misplayed the ball and it rolled past him scoring Lizerraga and moving Dunn to third.
The very next Citrus batter, Gabriel Chavez, ripped a single up the middle, scoring Dunn and putting the Owls only down by one run, but the Citrus bats weren’t finished. AC Grable’s double put Chavez on third, and brought pinch-hitter Chris Gomez to the plate. Gomez came through singling and scoring both Chavez and Grable to give the Owls a 6-5 lead.
Over the next three innings the Owls used solid defense and effective pitching to keep Fullerton scoreless. McGuire set the Fullerton line-up down in order in the 7th, while Thomas Korn pitched a scoreless 8th getting out of bases-loaded 2-out jam by getting Trent Abbott to ground out to first base ending the threat. In the 9th Daniel Sandello came in to try and get his first save of the year. Sandello gave up a single to the first batter, but got the second batter, Ryan Thompson, to ground into a 6-3 double play. After the next batter singled, the batter after that got on 1st on an error by Grable. Sandello finally got things over with when he got Sporrer to ground out to the third baseman, Lizerraga.
With the win the Fighting Owls improve to 9-16 on the season, as Bradley McGuire gets credit for the win moving his record to 2-0. Daniel Sandello also gets credited with his first save of the season. The Fighting Owls will be off on Tuesday before hitting the road for a match-up with Bakersfield College on Thursday. First pitch starts at 2:00 P.M.
Box Score