A back-and-forth game against El Camino College led to an 8-7 loss for the Cerritos College softball team this weekend at the Southern California Super Regionals, ending the Falcons’ 2015 season.
First baseman Crystal Cano said, “[This season] was up and down. It was a journey, but toward the end of our season we were really scared that we weren’t going to get into playoffs and we made it past regionals and people never predicted we would get that far.”
The Falcons’ 7-1 win over College of the Canyons in Regionals on May 2 and 11-8 win on May 3 advanced the team to the second round of playoffs, in which they traveled to Palomar College on Saturday.
That first game of the Super Regionals round ended in a 12-3 loss for the Falcons and lasted only five innings.
“This season was tough. Sometimes things didn’t go our way but I’m proud of what the [women] accomplished. They’re tough [women] and they never give up,” assistant coach Jenel Guadagno said.
With a two-game elimination in the second round, the Falcons stayed at Palomar College with a 2-1 record to face Citrus College and El Camino College.
The Falcons trailed the Citrus Owls 3-0 early during the first three innings of the game before designated player Raquel Norzagaray doubled to bring in left fielder Jasmine Javier in the fourth inning.
Three more runs at the hands of the Falcons gave them the lead in the fifth inning, but that was soon taken when the Owls scored on run in the bottom of the fifth to regain the lead at 5-4.
During what was supposed to be the last inning of the game, Norzagaray singled to right field, allowing pinch-runner Cheyann Samuelson to score and tie the game and force an eighth inning.
The Falcons scored three more runs at the top of the eighth inning, while the Owls scored one, finalizing the score at 8-6.
Right-handed pitcher Ana Pedroza worked the mound all eight innings, giving up six runs and one walk.
Just thirty minutes after the tug-of-war with Citrus, the Falcons faced El Camino for the fourth time in the season.
Once again, the Falcons saw themselves trailing in the beginning of the game. They put four runs on the board in the third inning and held a 7-2 lead into the top of the seventh inning.
In stunning fashion, the El Camino Warriors safely crossed the plate six times in the bottom of the seventh inning and ended the Falcons’ playoff run at a final score of 8-7.
During the four times that the Falcons and Owls faced each other in 2015, all games ended with a margin of one.
“It’s just something that we have to learn and we have to move past it. Hopefully next season will be a better turnout,” Cano said. “The biggest challenge was learning how to finish a game, lots of the runs that scored [against us] were in the last inning.”
Cerritos ended the season with an overall 26-19 record and 14-7 record in the South Coast Conference.
