In their first action in 22 months, the Cerritos College softball team split their two games at the inaugural SportsNet USA.net Invitational at Nancy Kelly Field on Saturday. The Falcons (1-1) opened with an 11-5 loss to Santiago Canyon College and followed that with a 2-0 win over Southwestern College. The team will take to the road on Tuesday when they travel to Riverside City College for a 3:00 p.m. game.

In the first game against Santiago Canyon, the Falcons would like to forget the first inning, where they surrendered seven runs on five hits and found themselves battling just to extend the game. But after that first inning, Cerritos outscored the Hawks, 5-4 and out-hit them, 11-9.

They scored single runs in each of the last five innings, with the first run coming on a sacrifice fly in the third inning from freshman catcher Vicky Najera (St. Paul HS). She drove in freshman outfielder Negasse Williams (Aliso Nigel HS), who led of with a bunt single and stole second base. Freshman shortstop Miranda Diaz (California HS), who went 3-for-4 and was a triple away from hitting for the cycle, clubbed a lead-off home run in the fourth inning.

Another leadoff hit and stolen base, this one by freshman second baseman Alyssa Sotelo (El Rancho HS), led to the Falcons third run, and ended up leaving the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Najera, who drove in a pair, tripled in Sotelo in the sixth with two outs, while a leadoff double from freshman third baseman Brooklyn Bedolla (Mayfair HS) led to a run when she scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of freshman designated player Maddy Guillen (La Puente HS).

Freshman pitcher Samantha Islas (Roosevelt HS) came on in relief and struck out four batters while allowing four runs over 5 1/3 innings.

In the second game of the day, Cerritos scored what turned out the be the game-winning run in the bottom of the first inning. Bedolla drew a one-out walk against the Jaguars, stole second base and came home on an infield single from Najera.

Freshman pitcher Courtney Callison (Santa Fe HS), who battled through that first inning against Santiago Canyon, tossed the first five innings against Southwestern and shut them out while allowing just four hits. Callison (1-1) gave way to Islas for the final two innings and she earned the save by retiring six of the seven batters she faced.

The Falcons added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning when freshman first baseman Ariana Hamilton (Downey HS) reached base on an error and moved to second base on a single by freshman designated player Patricia Soto (Long Beach Millikan HS). After both runners were advanced over on a sacrifice bunt from freshman outfielder Angelica Gonzalez (Sierra Vista HS), Hamilton came home in an infield single from freshman outfielder Alyssa Capps (Downey HS).

Photos by Daryl Peterson