Glendora, CA (Softball) -- The Citrus College softball team had Canyons College right where they wanted them. They had them in 0-2 hole, with two outs in the top of the sixth inning, and had Jessica Fridwall popped up to shallow left field.
In an instant that was all gone, as a miscommunication between short stop Courtney Mihm and left fielder Jessica Corralles led to that ball, popped up by Fridwall, dropping to the ground and a run scoring. Once that run scored, Canyons piled on two more, and before Citrus knew it a 2-0 lead had become a 2-3 deficit, and the pressure was now on the Lady Owls.
Things started out swimmingly for Citrus, as starter Kelly Martin cruised through five innings of work allowing a runner to get to second base just once. With Martin going to work, the offense was doing its part by collecting two runs in the bottom of the third inning.
After Citrus’ first two batters of the inning went down without much of a fight, sophomore Cassie Ward took a pitch up and out of the zone to deep left field for a ground rule double. With Ward on second, sophomore Jennifer Fontan quickly moved her to third thanks to a single up the left field line.
Threatening with runners on the corners, sophomore Melissa Salas came to the plate and had a bloop single to right field fall between the second baseman and right fielder, scoring Ward and moving Fontan to third. Freshman Valerie Torres would complete the inning with a base hit through the left side, scoring Fontan and giving Citrus their 2-0 cushion.
Things continued to move along until that ball dropped into left field in the sixth. Chasing a run in the sixth and seventh innings, Citrus went down in order through the next five batters, bringing sophomore Courtney Mihm to the plate with Citrus’ final out on the line.
Mihm stepped into the box and battled fouling off over ten pitches and running the count full. In what was an epic battle, Canyons starter Ashley Imperial finally got Mihm to pop out to the left fielder after 25 and some odd pitches, ending the game and giving Canyons the win.
With the loss, Citrus falls to 16-15 overall and 9-7 in WSC play, while Canyons improves to 22-10 overall and 12-4 in conference play. The Fighting Owls will play host to Glendale College on Thursday afternoon for a conference double-header. First pitch in game one is set for 1:00 PM.
Box Score