Defense Struggles As Lady Corsairs Suffer 12-4 Defeat

On Saturday the Santa Monica College women's softball team played host to the Monarchs of Los Angeles Valley College in the Western State Conference.

It was the third time this season that these two teams met head to head.

Earlier in the year at LAVC the two teams split a double header. Valley won the first game 9-6, while SMC took the second 11-8 to get the split. A victory for either school would result in a season series victory two games to one.

In warm conditions, SMC lost 12-4 in five innings.

"I think our defense just kind of collapsed on us today," said freshman pitcher/infielder Michelle Sierra.

The Monarchs drew first blood. After a walk and some precise hitting, they took a quick three-run lead in the top of the first inning.

SMC was able to make a dent in the lead that LAVC had. Cathy Villalobos and Sierra both were able to come across home plate for two runs after a couple of hits. At the end of the first inning, SMC was down 3-2. The one-run deficit would be as close as SMC would get

In the top of the second inning LAVC put on three more runs on the board. In the bottom of the second, SMC responded with a run of their own, but were still down 6-3.

SMC's defense came up big in the third. For the first time in the game the Monarchs could only send three batters to plate as they went down in order to close out the inning.

SMC had a great opportunity to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the third inning. Despite loading the bases, SMC was only able to score one run.

At the end of three innings SMC was down 6-4.

"Nobody came to play today," said Villalobos.

In the fourth inning the sky fell on SMC.SMC was guilty was of too many errors out in the field in the fourth inning which the Monarchs took advantage of. Wildly thrown balls plus timely hitting allowed LAVC to keep the inning going and get six runs. These six runs gave the Monarchs a 12-4 lead in which they would end the game with.

"I've been making a lot of errors lately. I do not know what is wrong with me," said Amanda Salvestrini. "I haven't been coming through lately. The rest of the team is doing much better then me."

SMC came to bat in the bottom of the fourth down by a large margin.Three women came up to bat and one by one each of these batters were called out on strikes, a fly out and a throw out at first after hitting a ground ball.

In the fifth and final inning, just like in the third, SMC was able to load the bases. SMC was unable to take advantage of the opportunity to score the needed runs and left the bases full when Mona Kamdjou hit an infield popup to end the inning.

"Our defense shut down a little bit. We are hitting the ball and were scoring enough runs to win. We just need to put more on the field," said Head Coach Tamara Ivie.