The Cerritos College softball team finished off their regular season on Tuesday with a 5-1 South Coast Conference win at East Los Angeles College. The Falcons (30-9-1 overall), who finished in second place in the SCC with a 12-3 mark, will now wait until the end of the week to find out where they will be seeded in the Southern California Regional Playoffs, which start May 5-6. The first round is a best two-out-of-three series and Cerritos will host that round.
In the win over the Huskies, the team scored two runs in the top of the third inning on three consecutive doubles. With one out, freshman pitcher Jessica Navarro (South Gate HS) hit her school-record 18th double and was quickly driven in by freshman first baseman Stephanie Lomeli (Montebello HS). Also lacing the first pitch was freshman second baseman Vanezza Martin Del Campo (St. Joseph HS), who drove home Lomeli with a double. The trio have combined to hit 45 doubles on the season.
After East LA scored an unearned run off Navarro in the bottom of the stanza, Cerritos added a single run in the sixth inning and closed out the scoring in the seventh with two more runs. Freshman catcher Nadine Garcia (Mayfair HS) drove in freshman outfielder Amber Cardona (Schurr HS) with a base hit, while in the seventh, Lomeli led off with her second double of the game and eventually stole home to give the Falcons a 4-1 advantage. The other run came home on a fielder's choice by Cardona, which brought home pinch-runner Korrin Soldan (Katella HS).
On the day, Lomeli went 4-for-4, while Martin Del Campo had three hits. Navarro picked up her 25th pitching win of the season and allowed one run (unearned) on seven hits and struck out six. Her 25 pitching wins this season is two shy of tying the school record of 27, set by Estella Gutierrez in 1987. At the plate, Navarro has already set new single-season records in hits (63), doubles (18) and runs scored (44), while her nine home runs is currently tied for the record with Nicole Deel. Additionally, her current .512 batting average is the best in school history.
