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Photo by
Juan Velez.
Cerritos dropped a 3-2 decision to
Sierra College on Friday afternoon. They
must now win six games if they want to
defend their state title. |
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This is not how
the Cerritos College softball team had envisioned
the start of the 2009 California Community College
Athletic Association State Championships. The
Falcons, seeded #2 from the South, came into their
game against Sierra College at the Salinas Sports
Complex riding a 14-game winning
streak, along with a 12-game post-season winning
streak. Cerritos missed out on several offensive
opportunities and dropped a 3-2 decision. With the
loss, the Falcons (39-10-1) must now win six games
over the course of the next two days in order to
defend their state title. They get started when they face Riverside College in an elimination
game at noon on Saturday. The only team to ever come
back to win the state title after losing their first
game was Santa Ana College in 1985, but it was only
a four-team tournament at the time.
With a chance to
win the game in the bottom of the seventh inning
after Wolverine pitcher Samantha Baker walked
freshman shortstop
Cassandra
Godoy (Downey HS) and freshman
catcher
Samantha
Vaaulu (Warren HS), sophomore
outfielder
Jennifer
Salas (California HS) looked
to win the game. However, she sent a soft liner to
shortstop Holli Bingaman, who threw to first base to
double up Vaaulu. But the play was not over, as
Godoy attempted to advance to third base, but was
thrown out for a rare triple play and an abrupt end
to the game.
An
error handed the Wolverines their first inning run
for the lead. North Player of the Year, Rochelle Vanyi cashed in with her state leading 21st
home run of the season to give Sierra the
2-0 lead. Cerritos wiped away the Sierra lead with one swing of the
bat, as Salas hit a two-run home run in the fourth
inning to
tie it up, 2-2.
The wolverines took the lead for good, when freshman
designated player Sam McMahan hit the eventual
game-winning home run to lead off the sixth.
Baker
(18-4) pitched the complete game win striking
out 12 Falcon batters while allowing just three
hits. Freshman
Hillary Perez-Ashley
(Long Beach Poly HS) saw her record drop to 28-6
after suffering
the loss. She allowed two earned runs and struck out
five. Sierra (41-13) moves on in the championship
bracket and will face College of the Siskiyous (46-3).
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