After suffering a 7-0 loss at the hands of Cypress College (51-4) in their second game of the day at the California Community Colleges Commission on Athletics State Softball Championships, the Cerritos College softball team must now win five straight games if they are to capture their second state title in school history. A loss would end the season for Cerritos in the double-elimination tournament. The long road starts on Saturday at 2:00 p.m., as the Falcons (34-10-1) will face the winner of the College of the Siskiyous-San Jose City College game. The seven-run loss tied for the worst loss on the season. In the tournament, Cerritos is the #4-seeded team from the south, while Cypress is the #2-seeded team. Earlier in the season, the Falcons posted a 2-0 win over the Chargers.
It was a five-run second inning for Cypress that put the game out of reach early. Capitalizing on their excellent team speed, coupled with two Falcon errors, led to the huge deficit. Three bunted balls, two for hits and one resulting in an error, along with two stolen bases, was what Cypress needed to blow the game open. In the inning, they collected four hits and had 11 on the day, while Cerritos had as many hits (4) as they did errors in the game.
Several times the Falcons had runners in scoring position, by Cypress pitcher Sydney Rae Woolley worked out of the jams and improved her record to 17-0 on the season. In the third inning, freshman outfielder Amber Cardona (Schurr HS) reached on a fielder's choice with two outs and stole second base. But, she was stranded with freshman shortstop Jenel Guadagno (Warren HS) grounded out to end the inning. In the fourth, freshman catcher Nadine Garcia (Mayfair HS) singed and was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by freshman pitcher Jessica Navarro (South Gate HS). After moving to third base on a ground out by freshman second baseman Vanezza Martin Del Campo (St. Joseph HS), she was also stranded when freshman first baseman Stephanie Lomeli (Montebello HS) flied out to end the inning.
Navarro allowed seven runs in the game, but five of them were unearned. In the game neither pitcher recorded a strikeout or a walk.
