Hosting Ventura College for a doubleheader on Friday, the Cerritos College softball team split the two games to complete a long week. The Falcons (21-9), who won the first game, 1-0 and dropped a 9-4 decision in eight innings in the second, played six games in the last seven days and will get a few days off before they resume South Coast Conference with a 3:00 p.m. game at El Camino College on Thursday.

With both pitchers locked in a defensive dual in the first game, Cerritos was finally able to solve Pirates (22-10) hurler Ashlyn Flinchum with the game's only run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Consecutive singles from shortstop Miranda Diaz (California HS) and Negasse Williams (Aliso Niguel HS) put runners on first and second base. Up stepped Richere Leduc (California HS), who drove the second pitch into center field, allowing Diaz to come home with the winning run. Prior to the three hits the Falcons collected in the seventh inning, they had only five to speak of through the first six innings.

Cerritos pitcher Samantha Islas (Roosevelt HS) battled through a couple of innings, as Ventura had runners in scoring position in the third and fifth innings. In the third, she saw the first two batters reach base on a hit-by-pitch and a single Islas (14-5) followed that by recording three straight outs to get out of the inning. Islas then allowed a pair of singles to start the fifth inning, but a strikeout and a pair of ground balls ended that threat.

There looked to be more of the same pitching in the second game, as neither team scored in the first two innings. However, in the top of the third inning, the Pirates scored three times off starting pitcher Courtney Callison (Santa Fe HS). A ball that dropped into the outfield after it was lost in the sun, was followed by an attempted sacrifice bunt, but with nobody on first base to handle the throw, it put runners at first and second. After a sacrifice fly advanced the lead runner, who eventually came home on a wild pitch, a pair of hits drove in the other two runs.

A two-out, two-run home run from Alyssa Sotelo (El Rancho HS) in the fifth inning drew the team to within 3-2, while the Falcons sent the game to extra inning when Brooklyn Bedolla (Mayfair HS) doubled home Leduc from second base with two outs. Leduc led off the inning with a walk.

With the second game going to the California Tie-Breaker Rule, which puts the last batter from the previous inning on second base to start the eighth inning, Ventura took full advantage of some Cerritos line-up adjustments. Leduc, who came on to pitch in the fourth inning, ran out of gas in the eighth inning and issued four walks, with the Pirates going in to score six runs on just two hits.

Vicky Najera (El Rancho HS), Bedolla and Williams all had a pair of hits in the second game.

Photos by Daryl Peterson