Two outs away from defeating visiting Cypress College on Thursday at Nancy Kelly Field, the Cerritos College softball team surrendered a run in the seventh and eighth innings and suffered a 4-3 loss in eight innings. The loss was the first of the season for the Falcons (8-1), who will host Long Beach City College at 1:00 p.m. on Friday.

Cerritos broke a 2-2 tie with an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning, as sophomore designated player Briana Zarate (Legacy HS/Compton College)  led off with a single. Freshman pinch-runner Brianna Bailon (Schurr HS) was sacrificed to second base and then scored on a two-out error when sophomore second baseman Ayiana Cardenas (Walnut HS) saw her ground ball roll through the legs of Chargers (6-1) shortstop Makayla Motis.

After freshman pitcher Tatyana Cortez (La Serna HS) recorded the first out of the seventh inning, Aliyah Hill blooped a single into short left field, while Jazzy Lopez followed with a top-spin double over the third base bag. The next batter, Nanea Kyle tied the game on a ground out. In the eighth inning, the Chargers Michayla Galaviz reached on a one-out bunt single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Jayda Maldonado dropped a bloop single inside the right field line, which scored the eventual winning run.

Freshman third baseman Marley Cortez (La Serna HS) led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run, her first of the season. She also drove in the team's second run in the fifth inning after Cardenas led off with a double to center. She was sacrificed to third on a bunt by freshman outfielder Amarie Encarnacion (Norwalk HS), which set the table for the RBI single from Cortez. All four at-bats by Cortez were hit hard, as she also lined out to right field and hit a laser back to the pitching circle, which was caught by pitcher Haley Tucker.

Tatyana Cortez tossed all eight innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits and struck out five batters, including the first two of the game.