Taking full advantage of their team speed, the Cerritos College softball team stole nine bases against Citrus College in their 5-4 non-conference win on Friday. The Falcons (9-4, 1-2) will travel to East Los Angeles College on Tuesday for a 3:00 p.m. South Coast Conference game.

The eventual game-winning run for the Falcons came on a stolen base in the fifth inning. After freshman Richere Leduc (California HS), who started the game in the circle, led off with a double, she moved to third base on a single from freshman third baseman Brooklyn Bedolla (Mayfair HS). With freshman outfielder Negasse Williams (Aliso Niguel HS) at the plate, Bedolla took off for second base. When the throw was made to second base, Leduc made her way home and was able to score before a throw could be made at the plate.

That run came right after the Owls (4-9) tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the stanza. Facing relief pitcher Courtney Callison (Santa Fe HS), Citrus led off the inning with a walk and double. That brought in freshman Samantha Islas (Roosevelt HS), who set down the side to get out of the inning. Citrus did score their run on a passes ball. Islas (5-1), who went the final three innings, struck out seven batters, with the final out of the game coming when freshman Vicky Najera (El Rancho HS) threw out pinch-runner Rebekah Rudder at third base, who tried to advance when a pitch got away from the catcher.

Trailing 1-0 heading into the bottom of the first inning, freshman second baseman Alyssa Sotelo (El Rancho HS) led off with a double and scored on a double by Najera. With two outs, freshman outfielder Maddy Guillen (La Puente HS) drove in Najera to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead. And, with the game tied at 3-3 in the third inning, Guillen clubbed a solo home run to put Cerritos in front, 4-3.

On the day, Guillen, Bedolla, Williams and freshman outfielder Alyssa Capps (Downey HS) all had a pair of hits for the Falcons.

Photos by Daryl Peterson