Glendora, CA (Baseball) -- Sophomore Chris Freedman threw six and two-thirds sterling innings, striking out a Citrus season high nine batters, and led the Fighting Owls to an important 5-3 win over visiting West LA College on Thursday afternoon.
Despite the impressive ending line, Freedman struggled out of the gate loading the bases up with no outs in the top of the first inning. Freedman composed himself and struck out the next batter, then got the very next batter to end the inning with a double play.
He continued to find trouble in the next inning giving up two earned runs, but eventually he settled down and struck out the final two batters of the inning to keep the Fighting Owls in contention early on.
After his early troubles in the first two innings, Freedman turned things around sitting down West LA batter after batter. He finally got some offensive help in the fourth inning, when freshman Joseph Garcia kicked off the Citrus scoring with a solo shot over the center field fence.
Two batters later, Kyle Nutter drove in Jack Schellin with a single up the middle to tie the ball game up at two runs a piece. West LA came back with a solo home-run of their own the very next inning to take a run advantage, but that would be all of the Wildcat scoring for the day.
In the sixth, the Citrus offense took control for good, when Mark Reynoso came on to pinch hit with runners on first and second. Reynoso promptly ripped an RBI single to right field to tie the game up. Angel Marti followed that up with a walk, and freshman Adrian Cota punched a two RBI single through the left side of the field to give Citrus a 5-3 lead.
In the eighth inning, the Fighting Owls turned the ball over to closer Aaron Ilharreguy. Ilharreguy gave up a double up the third base line to the first batter he faced, but after that he settled down and retired the next six batters that came to the plate, striking out three and picking up his fourth save of the season.
With the win, Citrus improves to 23-14 overall and 16-9 in WSC South play, while West LA falls to 13-21 and 10-15 in conference play. Thursday’s game marked the end of their 2009 regular season home schedule. Citrus will close out their conference slate over the next week with three straight away games. Game one will be on Saturday when they travel to Culver City to take on West LA. First pitch is set for 1:00 PM.
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