Softball Team Gets First Victory of the Year in Blowout Game

In a season of softball, there are two types of streaks that a team will go through. When a team is victorious, they establish a winning streak. In the case of Santa Monica College's softball team, the opposite took place as they started the season on a loosing streak with a record of 0-3.

Last Tuesday the SMC women's softball team went on the road to Moorpark College for a conference game. The game was close but Moorpark defeated SMC 3-2 in a tight game.

The defeat gave SMC their fourth straight loss of this young season.

"Yes it was a tough loss," said Head Coach Tamara Ivie, "but we are showing promise." Ivie went on to say, "we are getting better every time we go out on the field."

Last Thursday the women were back at home to face the Eagles from Mission College. SMC came into the game still waiting for their chance to savor the sweet taste of victory.

During the game it was as if a sleeping dragon woke. Not only was SMC able to collect their first win on the season, but also, it was a big one. After five innings of action as SMC went on to lead by a score of 12-3, the game was called under the mercy rule.

"Mission has always been a really good team, I just think we hit and we had people on base and we were not leaving them out there like we have in the past," said sophomore short-stop Amanda Salvestrini

The Eagles put their first run on the board in the top of the first inning. They were able to get a couple of hits, and a throwing error by Georgina Marroquin of SMC allowed Jolene Alonso of Mission to advance to second base. Teammate Joanna Salas hit a single, which drove Alonso in for the run.

In the bottom of the second inning SMC's bats awoke. The women quickly tied the game and soon after took a 4-1 lead. SMC never saw this lead disappear.

In the top of third, Mission got one of the runs back as they had a base runner come across home plate. The score now read 4-2. SMC in the bottom of the third regained the three run lead as they scored another run to put the score at 5-2.

In the fourth inning both clubs managed to put runs on the scoreboard. At the end of the inning the score now read 6-3.

In the top of the fifth inning the Eagles were unable to score thanks to SMC's strong defense this inning was only a hint as to what was going to come.

In the bottom of the fifth SMC blew the game wide open. First up was Wendy Mejia who drew a walk. After a sacrifice bunt and poor fielding by the Eagles, SMC had base runners at first and one in scoring position at third with only 1 out. Salvestrini the next batter, like in recent games hit a single and drove in two more runs.

SMC was able to get four more runs across the plate in this same inning to go up 12-3. Once the nine run lead was reached in the bottom of the fifth the game was called and victory finally came to the Lady Corsairs softball team and the first victory for first year coach Tamara Ivie.

"We got our first win today, hopefully we can keep on winning," said Nisha Foster.