Softball team gets rocked in Doubleheader
Every spring a select group of women grab their gloves and bats and head for the field either for a game or a practice. These are the women who make up the women's softball team of Santa Monica College Corsairs.
This past week SMC's softball season for the women came to a close. Last Thursday College of the Canyons Cougars visited for a scheduled double header. SMC was swept away as they lost both games 5-0 and 29-4. These two games were also the last two games sophomore shortstop Amanda Salvestrini will ever play in front of the home fans.
"Yeah it's kind of sad," Salvestrni said. "There are a lot of good people I met here."
Salvestrini will have a conference with the coaches from California Sate University Fullerton to see about playing for the Titans next year.
The first game was a defensive battle for both squads. The two schools had few chances but the Cougars took advantage of every opportunity they had while the Corsairs was unable to do the same.
"The first game was probably one of the best defensive games that we've had all season," Salvestrini said.
In game one SMC went to bat against a very strong pitcher, Jennifer Zev. Throughout the whole game the Cougars' pitcher Zev kept SMC from taking advantage of any opportunity they might have to score. She never allowed SMC to have more then one runner on the base at one time. When a batter from SMC either got a hit or was walked, Zev would retire the next batters after her to prevent any damage.
The Cougars scored two of their five runs in the first inning. Hannah Lau and Kirsten Lindgreen of COC came across home plate after their teammate hit a single, which drove them in. In the next six innings of the first game COC little by little were able to extend their lead up to the fifth and final run.
Game two got under way about fifteen minutes after game one was over. This game differed from the first. The lack of players that SMC has on the team was a major factor in the second game.
In game two, SMC started their second pitcher on the team. Michelle Sierra, who pitched in game one was now over at third. Georgina Marroquin SMC's second pitcher took the mound for the Lady Corsairs.
COC came up to bat in the top of the first inning and drew first blood. After a two Cougar batters were able to get on base Lindgreen hit a long fly ball that had eyes on it. It traveled right over the left field fence for a three run homerun. This gave the Cougars an early 3-0 lead. Next up was Erica Duhart who hit another homerun and extended to a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the first inning SMC got back into the game by scoring three runs. Salvestrini hit a solo homerun, which gave SMC their first run of the afternoon. Cathy Villalobos got a base hit after the solo homerun.
With Villalobos on first, Sierra came up to bat. Like Lindgreen of COC, she also hit a ball that had eyes on it. The ball fell to ground on the other side of the left center fence. This two run homerun moved SMC within one run. This one run deficit would be as close as SMC would ever come to for the remainder of the game.
"She was a rise ball pitcher and I was just looking to get something high," Sierra said. "She threw me high and in and I just got my hands above the ball and hit it out."
In the second inning, after surrendering many walks and hits, Marroquin was pulled and Sierra moved from her third base position to pitch once again. The move didn't help as the Cougars blew the game wide open by getting eight runs in the top of the second inning to go up by a score of 12-3.
"We don't really have the depth in pitching to go on and play a second game," Assistant Coach Christen Bedwell said. "So one of our pitchers isn't on were kind of in trouble, so I just had to switch it around to see what we could get done."
For the rest the afternoon COC went on to score 17 more runs before SMC got their final run in the bottom of the fifth. Canyon took advantage of every mistake that SMC was guilty of committing and made them pay for it by constantly scoring runs.
"We definitely always score enough runs to win," Villalobos said. "The outfield just doesn't hustle all the time and the infield just wont stay down on the ball. I mean, everyone has their mistakes; it happens all around but our defense today was lacking."
On Saturday for their final two games went to Citrus College for a doubleheader.