Glendora, CA (Softball) – The Citrus College Lady Owls conference championships hopes has come down to one game after sweeping Santa Monica in a double-header Thursday afternoon. With a one game lead over Canyons and Bakersfield, all that will be standing in the way of their first ever Western States Conference crown will be College of the Canyons on Tuesday April 19, 2007 at 2:30 PM. If the Lady Owls win it will be their first conference title since they won the Foothill crown in 1983.
The Lady Owls looked every bit of a conference champion in their double-header sweep Thursday afternoon. In the first game the Lady Owls dropped 18 runs in the 2nd inning alone, to jump out to a quick advantage on the Corsairs. The Lady Owls racked up 22 hits over 5 innings to pick up their 33rd win, with a 25-1 victory. Jessica Alvarez picked up her 9th win of the season only giving up 1 earned run and striking out 4 batters over 5 innings of work.
In the second game, Santa Monica came out swinging the bats with a vengeance. After getting the first Santa Monica batter to pop-out, the Lady Owls allowed runners on first and second after an error by short-stop Melanie Hansen and an Alvarez walk. The very next Santa Monica batter came up and hit a deep home-run to center-field giving the Corsairs an early 3-0 advantage.
Citrus didn’t panic however, as they calmly answered Santa Monica’s run with a 5-spot in the bottom of the 1st inning. After giving up one more run in the top of the 2nd, which was answered by the Lady Owls in the same inning, Alvarez took a breather and made way for Corinne Milligan to take over for the final five innings.
With a comfortable 6-4 lead, Milligan struck out the side in the 3rd inning, while the Lady Owls offense continued to roll with 4 more runs in the bottom of the 3rd. In the top of the 4th, Milligan and company ran in trouble giving up 2 un-earned runs, before facing only 10 more batters over the final three innings.
When all was said and done, the Lady Owls won their 34th game of the year with a 13-6 victory over the Lady Corsairs. Milligan picked up her 24th win of the season, striking out 11 batters in just 5 innings of work.
After Thursdays sweep, the Lady Owls record moves to 34-9 and 21-3 in conference play. Before their final conference game on Tuesday, the Lady Owls will have one more non-conference match-up with Pasadena City College on Monday afternoon. Citrus will be on the road for the game in Pasadena, with a 3:00 PM start-time.
Box Score Game 1
Box Score Game 2