Freshman outfielder Taylor Richter has produced some noise with her bat this season. In her first appearance at the plate, Richter awakened the crowd with a bomb to center field that gave the Warriors the lead over the visiting Huskies.
The El Camino College softball team (15-9 overall) dominated East Los Angeles College (6-15) with an 8-0 victory in five innings.
Freshman pitcher Natalie Francis tossed a complete game shutout, allowing just three hits by the Huskies. Francis improved to 8-4 on the season.
“I felt good today, I threw a lot of strikes and my defense really helped me,” Francis said. “We were aggressive in the box on (offense) and got some big runs that helped us.”
The home team executed flawlessly on defense with no errors, while making some tough catches that erased a couple of base hits for the Huskies. East Los Angeles College finished with three errors on defense that added some insurance runs for El Camino.
“We did a good job getting the first out of every inning and hitting the ball hard on the ground when we had runners on base,” Warriors coach Jessica Rapoza said. “I think (Natalie) did excellent today and really hit her spots. The defense backed her up well and made some great plays.”
The Warriors collected a total of eight hits in 19 at-bats. The Huskies finished with three hits in 17 at-bats.
Richter and freshman catcher Brigid Antonelli led the team in hits and they demonstrated why, going a perfect three-for-three at the plate for El Camino, while also adding two RBIs each.
In the last two games, Richter has five hits in seven at-bats and Antonelli has four hits in five plate appearances.
Freshman third baseman Maleigha Quintero and pitcher Haley Reed also added one hit and one RBI each for the Warriors.
“I felt really good during warm-ups and as a a team i think we came out ready to hit,” Antonelli said. “We just have to stay consistent with hitting and getting the job done on defense.”
The Warriors are back in action at 3 p.m. on Saturday in a non-conference game against the No. 4 ranked team in the state, Palomar College (17-1).
