Glendora, CA (Baseball) -- The beauty of sports is, that it doesn’t matter how long you trail for as long as when the game ends the scoreboard is in your favor. The Citrus College baseball team trailed for eight innings in Tuesday’s game with LA Pierce College, but a three run rally in the bottom of the ninth gave the Owls their sixth straight victory in their 5-4 win over the Brahma’s.
Pierce would get things going in the top of the first inning capitalizing on a Citrus error to take an early 1-0 lead. The Brahmas added another run in the fourth, and two more in the fifth thanks to a home-run to left-center field by off the bat of Jason Barmasse.
Going into the bottom of the fifth, Citrus was trailing 4-0 and looked like they wouldn’t be able to get much offense going. That’s when things started to turn around for the Fighting Owls, when RBI doubles by Julio Raymundo and Joseph Garcia cut the deficit to two runs.
With their offense finally showing signs of life, Citrus turned to middle-reliever Chris Freedman to shut down Pierce. Freedman did just that, pitching four and two-thirds sterling innings striking out five batters, and surrendering no runs.
That’s all Citrus needed as Pierce would hold on their 4-2 lead until the last possible second. With the top of the order coming to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, freshman Jacob Ludvik kicked things off with a bomb to left field making the score 4-3.
Sophomore pinch hitter Scott Vincent, continued the hit parade with a single to left field, that Raymundo followed up with another single, this time back up the middle. With runners on first and second, freshman pinch hitter Mark Reynoso came to the plate and laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Vincent’s pinch runner Vince Prado and Raymundo to second and third.
With the go ahead run on second, freshman Joseph Garcia (who was 1 for 2 all ready) came to the plate to try and give Citrus the victory. Garcia didn’t disappoint as he ripped a single to left-center field, scoring Prado and Raymundo for the walk-off victory.
With the win, Citrus continues its hot start improving to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in WSC South Division play, while Pierce falls to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in conference play. Citrus continues its conference schedule on Thursday when it hits the road to take on Pierce yet again. First pitch is set for 2:00 PM.
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