Eight is not enough
COC insider: Women’s softball team continues conference streak
Despite facing its busiest week of the season, with five contests scheduled over a four-day span, the College of the Canyons softball team just keeps winning.
The Cougars pushed their win streak to eight games on Thursday after traveling to Citrus College for an 8-1 conference victory.
Canyons (15-8, 9-0) has now won eight straight games, not including its road contest vs. L.A. Mission back on March 13, which had to be halted due to rain in the bottom of the fifth with COC holding a 5-0 lead.
The Cougars have not tasted defeat since dropping the second half of a road doubleheader to El Camino College some 34 days ago.
COC started the week with an 8-0 five-inning win over Glendale on Tuesday, then made the roughly 230-mile round trip to Barstow College the following afternoon for a convincing 13-0 six-inning victory. That game had previously been scheduled for March 22 but had to be rescheduled due to weather.
On Thursday, Katie Taix (8-3) won her sixth straight start for the Cougars, allowing a lone run in six innings of work.
COC sophomore Danielle Chatman blasted a two-run homer in the first inning that helped set the tone for the day and finished the game with a team-high four runs, going 2-for-2 with a triple and two walks in the process.
Later, Sienna Vannoy and Jordan Vallejo both plated runs on RBI-doubles.
Vallejo ended the day 2-for-2 with three runs from the cleanup spot while Vannoy was 1-for3 with a walk and two RBIs. Valerie Rivas was 2-for-2 with two RBIs of her own.
The win over Citrus (14-11, 5-4) has brought the Cougars full circle, as the eight-game streak originally began vs. the Owls back on Feb. 28.
Up next, Canyons will host No. 9 state ranked Santiago Canyon College (19-6, 7-5) for a non-conference doubleheader at Whitten Field on Friday. Games are scheduled for noon and 2 p.m.
Men’s golf cruises to sixth conference win
COC golfers Jones Comerford and Jack Roycroft shared medalist honors with an even par round of 72 in leading the Cougars to their sixth conference victory at Spring Valley Lakes Country Club in Victorville on Monday.
Comerford has now earned medalist honors in two of the last three events he has played, also adding a second-place finish along the way. He currently sits in second place of the Western State Conference (WSC) individual season standings, four strokes back of leader Joey Herrera of Ventura College.
Roycroft’s round of 72 was a season best and helped the Cougars to a five-man score of 368, which also represented a season low for Canyons. COC topped the field and outpaced second place Santa Barbara City College (384) by 16 strokes.
Canyons will next head north to compete at WSC No. 9 at Santa Maria Country Club on Monday.
Track and field sweeps meet
COC track and field swept the Western State Conference (WSC) Inland Meet at Bakersfield College on Saturday, with the men’s and women’s teams sprinting to a combined 17 first place finishes to win the meet outright on both sides.
The Canyons men’s team edged out a 144142 victory over Glendale. Meanwhile, COC’s women’s squad dominated the field with a 192-112 victory over its closest competitor, also second place Glendale.
Both team victories represented a seasonbest result for the Cougars. The men’s team had finished second in each of its three conference meets, while the women’s team previously finished third at the WSC North meet on Feb. 23.
COC’s women’s team won a combined nine events to easily outpace the field. Sydni Jordan was a part of three of those victories, winning the 100m (13.28) and helping both the 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams finish in the front of the pack.
Cougar highlights on the men’s side included the performance turned in by the sprinters. COC took the first two spots in the 100m with Calel Christian (11.25) and Steven Arrington (11.31) pacing each other. It was more of the same in both the 200m and 400m events, with COC taking the top four positions in both races. The 4x400m relay team of Arrington, Blake Beeler, Leo Lambert and Slade Cavallaro also took first at a pace of 3:23.62.
Canyons will send individual athletes to the SoCal Heptathlon/Decathlon events April 3-4 at Cerritos College, then regroup for team completion at the upcoming Vaquero Invite hosted by Glendale on April 7.
For more information about the Cougars’ 17 intercollegiate sports programs visit www.COCathletics.com.