 |
Photo by
Juan Velez.
Falcons escape first day
of regional. |
|
More
Photos |
|
The Cerritos College softball team found the
first day of the Super Regional at Nancy
Kelly Field to be a tough struggle against
#8-seeded Grossmont College. The Falcons
entered the second round of the playoffs as
the #1-seeded team and were quickly looking
on the wrong side of a 2-0 deficit before
they came to bat. But Cerritos (39-4)
rebounded and posted a 5-3 win over the
#8-seeded Griffins (29-10) to advance to the
championship semi-finals.
On Saturday, the Falcons will face #5-seeded
Fullerton College (27-13) at 2:00 p.m., who
posted a 12-4, 6-inning win over #4-seeded
Mt. San Antonio (32-11). In the first
elimination game of the day, Grossmont will
play Mt. San Antonio at noon. The winner of
the championship semi-final will move on to
Sunday, while the loser of that game will
face the winner of the Mt. SAC-Grossmont
victor.
Sophomore pitcher
Hillary Perez-Ashley (Long
Beach Poly HS) was hit hard by the
Griffins, but escaped any more damage by
stranding the bases loaded in the second,
third and fourth innings. After allowing
Kylee Wilson to hit a two-run home run in
the first inning, she allowed a pair of hits
and committed an error in the second inning.
But she regrouped and struck out Wilson
before getting Angela Lovelady to fly out to
end the damage. In the third, she got
Heather Brewer to fly out with the bases
loaded and two outs, while Kelly Seitz was a
strikeout victim to end the fifth with the
bases loaded.
On the offensive side, sophomore outfielder
Devin Salmones (Gahr HS)
drew the game even with a two-run home run
in the bottom of the second inning, while
the Falcons pushed across three more runs in
the third inning. With one out, sophomore
shortstop
Cassandra Godoy (Downey HS)
singled and stole second base before
sophomore first baseman
Ashley Ventura (Carson HS)
posted an infield single. Sophomore catcher
Samantha Vaaulu
(Warren HS) drove in Godoy with a
base hit, while sophomore second baseman
Lindsey Marquez (Gahr HS) and Salmones each
followed with RBI singles.
Lovelady got the Griffins to within 5-3 with
a solo home run in the sixth inning, but
Perez-Ashley (33-1) withstood a two-out
error in the seventh inning to finish out
the win.
Salmones led the team by going 3-for-3
with three RBI, while freshman outfielder
Samantha Garcia (St. Joseph
HS) and Ventura each added a pair of
hits. Britt Wright went 4-for-4 at the plate
for Grossmont, while Lovelady and Caitlin Aimalefoa
both had two hits.
|
