Glendora, CA (Baseball) -- When you give up a season high 17 hits, and collect just six of your own, you don’t exactly expect to win a baseball game. If that situation were to arise however, there’s only a few ways you could pull it off. One way would be to earn a season high 12 walks, the other would be to get a two run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Citrus College (ranked #13 in Southern California) did just that on Tuesday afternoon, earning a 11-10 victory over visiting LA Mission College, when sophomore Evelio Ahumada launched a two run bomb over the left field fence to give Citrus their 12th victory of the season.
Things got off to a rather rocky start for Citrus, when sophomore Aaron Illhareguy gave up three earned runs to open up the game. Mission continued to pile it on in the fourth, when they added three more to take an early 6-0 lead.
While the Citrus pitching struggled to get outs, the Mission pitching seemed to be stumbling similarly, but the Fighting Owls offense bailed out the Eagles mistakes. Mission starter Nick Cerritos pitched three and a third innings, throwing 81 pitches, for just 36 strikes.
Citrus finally got the hang of things in the bottom of the fourth, chasing Cerritos, and getting their first run of the game thanks to a bases loaded walk by Ralph Mendoza. Mendoza’s walk was promptly followed by a two RBI double up the left field line off the bate of Robert Dreyer, and another bases loaded RBI walk by Jacob Ludvik that made the score 4-6.
Finally in the game, Citrus continued their patient ways at the plate recording another RBI walk in the sixth inning, this time by Dreyer. Moments later Ahumada would score on a wild pitch, after which Ludvik would belt a single to right field that scored two runs, giving Citrus their first lead of the game at 8-6.
With the lead at their backs Citrus turned the ball over to sophomore Stephen Chakerian who retired Mission in order in the top of the sixth inning. Chakerian continued on into the seventh giving up a solo shot to the very first batter he faced, then settling down and retiring the next three.
After the solo home-run, Chakerian went into the top of the 8th still holding on to a 9-7 lead, and feeling good sitting down six out of the seven batters he had faced thus far. That changed quickly, when he gave up a single to centerfield and a double up the left field line to put runners on second and third with no outs.
Still Chakerian remained in the game giving up a run on a fielder’s choice as Mission cut the lead to one run. With a runner still on second, the Eagles sent center fielder Virgil Hill to the plate to face Chakerian. With Mission’s best chance to take the lead on the line, Hill came through, as he drilled a home run over the center field wall, to give Mission the 10-9 advantage.
With the Fighting Owl lead gone just like that, Citrus went down rather easily in the eighth, and had to turn their attention to the ninth, where freshman Joseph Garcia and Ahumada waited in the wings.
Garcia set the tone with a double to deep center field. With Garcia standing on second, Ahumada watched one pitch get called a strike, and then belted the second pitch he saw over the left field fence to win the game for Citrus.
In the win, Citrus was led by Dreyer who went two for three with four RBI’s and one run scored. Sophomore Jesus Sanchez would get credited with his second win of the season, pitching one and a third innings, giving up one hit, striking out two batters, and surrendering no runs.
With the win, Citrus improves to 12-5 overall and 6-3 in WSC South play, while Mission falls to 9-9 overall and 4-5 in conference play. The Fighting Owls will get a strong road test over the rest of the week, as they travel to Mission on Thursday, and then to West LA on Saturday. Thursday’s first pitch is set for 2:30 PM.
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