Azusa, CA (Softball) – The defending 2007 WSC South Champion Lady Owl softball team kicked off their 2008 slate Friday afternoon with a game against Saddleback College. Citrus mustered up just two hits and recorded three errors in a disappointing 1-3 loss.
Sophomore Brittany Patterson made her debut in the circle for Citrus, giving up just one earned run. Despite giving up just one earned run, Patterson struggled early on with finding the strike zone. Patterson walked six total batters, including four in the first three innings.
Although she struggled with her command, Patterson did an admirable job of getting out of tough situations. After opening up the third inning by inducing a ground-out, Patterson walked the next two batters, and gave up an infield single, loading up the bases with just one out. Patterson shone through however, getting Saddleback’s Sara Sutton to strike out looking, and Krystal Navarro to ground out to end the threat and inning.
While Citrus’ defense and pitching were taking care of business in the opening innings, the Lady Owls offense was taking advantage of Saddleback errors in the bottom of the third. Freshman Lauren Pulley would score Citrus’ lone run in that inning, scoring from first base on three straight passed balls, giving the Lady Owls a 1-0 lead.
With a slim 1-0 lead in their possession, the Citrus defense would bend and not break for the next two innings, until the top of the 6th when Saddleback opened up a lead of their own. After opening up the inning with a walk, the Gauchos bunted over the runner to second base putting Krystal Navarro in scoring position. The very next batter, Laura Zierer, stepped up and roped a triple, driving in Navarro and tying up the game. Seconds later Zierer would score herself, taking advantage of a passed ball to give the Gauchos a 2-1 lead.
In the next inning, Saddleback would add to their lead by taking advantage of two Citrus errors to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh. With the top of their order coming to the plate, freshman Courtney Mihm led off the inning with a walk for Citrus. Lauren Pulley would follow that up with a single to left-field, putting runners on first and second base. After sophomore Melanie Hansen hit a sacrifice fly to right field, moving Mihm and Pulley to second and third, clean-up hitter Amanda Mays came to the plate.
Mays stepped into the box and ripped a deep fly ball up the left-field line, but the ball went foul. A few pitches later, Mays was caught looking as Saddleback’s Megan Boardman caught the corner striking her out. The rally was ended moments later as Christina Skelton popped up to end the game.
The Lady Owls struck out just once in the loss, but flied out 14 times, compared to just 5 ground-outs. Citrus moves to 0-1 in the season, and will be back at home next week as it plays host to Imperial Valley and Riverside City College on Wednesday February 6th. The IVC game starts at 1:00 PM, while Citrus will take on the Tigers of Riverside at 5:00 PM.
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