After having their nine-game winning streak broken by the Mount San Antonio College Mounties on Monday, the El Camino College Warriors were dealt their second consecutive loss Tuesday.
In Monday’s loss, the Warriors faced off against the Mounties in an away game. The Mounties won, 4-2.
In the second loss, the Long Beach City College Vikings walked away with the win, 3-1, on Tuesday, April 22, at the ECC Softball Field.
The Vikings are now in first place in the South Coast Conference Softball Standings and the Warriors are now in second place.
The game was thoroughly close as both teams vied for the top spot of the SCC bracket.
The Warriors held the lead for a substantial portion of the match, with infielder Cheyenne Navarro hitting an inside-the-park home run, giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead in the third inning.
The top of the sixth inning resulted in the Vikings overcoming the Warriors’ tight grip with a leadoff double, making a risky play to move its players to third base while letting one of their players take the sacrifice to ensure that their strategy would work.
Infielder Jaela Ruiz hit a double right of center, bringing the match to 1-1. The strategy paying off for the Vikings when it ended up working tying the match.
“I just feel like we did a lot of things right. We just didn’t get the clutch hit. Lexi [Ramirez] squared the ball up to right field and our ball went right to their right fielder,” ECC coach Jessica Rapoza said.
The Vikings expanded on the tie by taking the lead in the top of the seventh inning, with two singles and bases loaded. First baseman Mikaela Pacheo then hit a single right of center and brings two runs home, placing the Vikings ahead 3-1.
“Some things didn’t go our way in the beginning and we just continued to stay together, continued to be relentless and continued to stay true to who we are,” LBCC coach Megan Martinez said.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Warriors ended with two outs from catcher Anahi Pintado, followed by an infield single from outfielder Jackie Ordonez. When sides switched, LBCC pitched an error that ended with Warriors on second and third base.
Warriors utility hitter Savanna Kastigar went up to bat, with the chance of a single or double. Vikings pitcher Hailey Harris threw a pitch that Kastigar struck out on, ending the game, 3-1.
“If we won this game, we would have been conference champs. We went in knowing we are the better team when we play the way we need to play. But sometimes, your bat doesn’t work, your gloves don’t work, your pitching doesn’t work and today it just didn’t fall the way we needed it to fall,” Kastigar said.
Warriors fall to (32-7) on the season and (19-4) in the SCC, the Vikings move to (34-4) and (22-2) in the SCC. The Warriors will be on the road for the final game of the season facing the Compton College Tartars (13-22) on Wednesday April, 23, at 1:30 p.m.
