Glendora, CA (Softball) -- The Citrus College softball team got a sweet start to their 2010 WSC Blue Division schedule with a sweep over defending champ College of the Canyons on Tuesday afternoon. The Lady Owls took down the Cougars 4-2 in the first contest and 5-4 in the second.
In the first contest of the day, Citrus College pitcher Kimberly Lopez dominated. After struggling in the opening inning in which she gave up a lead off solo home run and got out of a bases loaded jam, she settled in nicely striking out two batters and giving up no hits between the second and sixth innings.
While Lopez was setting down the Cougar line-up, the Citrus offense proved opportunistic. After capitalizing on a pair of Canyons errors in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI walk by Kimberly Lopez, Citrus got a solo homer to right center field from Tamara Robles in the second and a RBI single to right off the bat of Kristan Breslau in the fourth.
Leading 3-0, Citrus got another insurance run in the sixth, when Robles scored for the second time in the game. Lopez would then put the game away in the top of the seventh, but did give up back to back two outs hits in the final inning that scored Canyons second run of the game.
The second game would start out much like the first with Canyons getting an opening inning run off starter Destinee Quinn. Citrus’ offense would go quietly in the first two innings, but put together a huge run in the third.
The Lady Owls scored all five of their runs in the third inning getting RBI’s from Lopez, Breslau, Robles, Brittany Vasquez and Jacqueline Ramirez. With a 5-1 lead at her back Quinn gave up an unearned run in the fourth, and then gave up solo home run to Alexis Caso in the fifth (her second of the game).
With the lead cut to two and no outs in the fifth, Quinn got the next batter to ground out, but walked the next batter and then gave way to Lopez. Lopez surrendered a single to her first batter in the second game before getting the next two batters out, but not before another Canyon run scored this time on a passed ball.
As their lead dwindled to a lone run, Citrus got on opportunity for some insurance in the fifth with a runner on third and no outs. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to cash it in as they headed into the final two innings with the slimmest of margins. Thankfully Lopez went back to work, retiring six of the final seven batters she faced, picking up her first save of the season along the way.
In the wins, Citrus was led by Breslau who scored two runs and drove in two runs, and Robles who also score a pair and drove in a pair. With the wins, Citrus improves to 10-10 overall and 2-0 in WSC Blue Division play, while Canyons falls to 7-7 overall and 1-2 in conference games.
Citrus who plays six games in five days this week, will hit the road tomorrow to take on LA Mission in a make-up game from last Thursday’s rain out. First pitch is set for 2:30 PM.
Box Score – Game 1
Box Score – Game 2