It was a sweltering 90-degree day and as the sun blazed the softball team took to the field to battle the L.A. Harbor College Seahawks at home in their second match-up of the season.
The Warriors defeated the Seahawks 4-0 in seven innings that made this their seventh win in a row and their 11th from 12 games.
The sun and the heat played a factor in Thursday’s game as both teams had a slow start in the first couple of innings and remained scoreless until the top of the fourth.
“I don’t think we did anything wrong,” coach Jessica Rapoza said. “I think our pitch selection was good. I just think we weren’t getting any luck at the beginning of the game and the luck kind of went our way when we put the ball on the ground.”
In the fourth inning, EC built a rhythm and got some runs in when freshman first baseman Jenna Gil singled and advanced to second on the throw. Sophomore second baseman Marissa Padilla advanced to third and sophomore pitcher Danielle Bonsky, who was on third, ran home to score. The Warriors rallied and scored two more runs. By the end of the fourth, the score was 3-0.
“I think we just came out a little lethargic and a little tired,” Rapoza said. “I think the heat has a tendency to do that with teams. So we had good swings we just seemed not (to) be putting the ball in the holes and so I think the change was really when our hits started finding holes and it started to go on from there.”
Bonsky had one RBI and three strikeouts on the mound. Sophomore infielder Kathy Orozco and sophomore right fielder Samantha Lauro had one RBI. In her season debut, freshman infielder Jenna Gil had a solid game, earned one RBI and made plays that got batters out on first base.
“I thought I did pretty well for just coming in there [and] not expecting to go in,” Gil said. “It was exciting to get to play for the first time, it was really thrilling.”
In the bottom of the fifth inning EC scored another run. Gil’s performance lit a spark in the team, Rapoza said.
“She had a really, really good at bat where she came and she fought, and she fought, and she fought,” Rapoza said. “She got that clutch base hit that I think was our first run of the game. I thought that was a really big spark for someone who came in off the bench.”
EC is now 12-1 in their conference and will play in the Santa Barbara City tournament this weekend on March 28-29. Their next home game is Tuesday, March 31 against joint conference-leaders Mt. San Antonio at 3 p.m.
“We played [Mt. SAC] before and we beat them,” sophomore third baseman Reina Trejo said. “We can’t look back at that game. We have to look at this game as a fresh start, like we never played them before, and go in there ready to win.”
