Arabs’ rally falls short
IMPERIAL — The Imperial Valley College softball team suffered a stinging conference loss on Monday afternoon, falling to Southwestern College, 6-3, here.
The Arabs were down by three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, yet started a rally that worked to load the bases with just one out.
Unfortunately for the local squad, Southwestern’s Yasmine Jameson recorded a strikeout and with help from her first baseman, who dove to field a foul ball, ended IVC’s rally and the game.
The loss is only the sixth of the season for IVC, who is battling for a spot in the playoffs with an overall record of 15-6 and a Pacific Coast Athletic Conference record of 6-4.
“We just tell the girls we know they have it in them and that they have to forget about this game and move forward,” said IVC head coach Jill Lerno.
IVC has another tough game this week, as the team is set to travel to face Grossmont, who is third in the conference standings.
“We have to take it game-by-game because there are a lot of games left that we need to win,” Lerno noted.
Both starting pitchers threw well on the mound, yet defensive miscues by both teams accounted for most of the runs of the game, with Jameson and IVC starter Maritza Rojas each giving up just one earned run.
“Maritza pitched like she always does,” Lerno said. “She had five strikeouts and kept us in the game.”
While Rojas was able help the Arabs defensively, offensively, she was avoided by the visiting Jaguars.
The 18-year-old has the highest batting average on the team and in the conference and was given first base in each of her four at-bats.
Despite evading Rojas, the Jaguars could not intentionally walk every Arab batter, and in the fourth inning saw their 3-0 lead turn into a 3-3 tie.
After a long at-bat, Victoria Martinez opened the bottom of the inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Celeste Bernal.
Southwestern worked to retire the third batter of the inning before Sinclaire Mays launched a fly ball to deep left field that scored Martinez from second base.
The play appeared to shake the visitors, who had a dropped-third strike and an overthrow to first base that scored Mays and left one runner in scoring position for Melannie Ibarra, who hit a double to bring in the runner and tie the game.
This rally was also cut short, however, due to an error in the lineup that ruled Ibarra was out, ending the inning.
The Jaguars then put some runs between themselves and IVC in the fifth and sixth innings and with a solid performance from Jameson, denied the Arabs a chance to rally back in the bottom of the seventh.
IVC has six conference games left in the season and is in the No. 4 spot in the 10-team conference.