Although it was a slow start for the Cerritos College softball team on Thursday, their bats remained hot, as they recorded an 11-2, 5-inning win over visiting East Los Angeles College. The Falcons (15-10, 9-3) sit in third place in the South Coast Conference and will play a pair of non-conference games this weekend before returning to SCC action. On Saturday, Cerritos will host Fullerton College (15-6) at 11:00 a.m. and follow that with a 3:00 p.m. game against Los Angeles Mission College (16-10). The two teams will take on each other between the Falcon games.

In the win over the Huskies (5-18, 2-0), the team trailed, 1-0 early and after taking a 2-1 lead, saw the game tied, 2-2 heading into the bottom of the second inning. In the first inning, freshman catcher Jimena Velazquez (Fullerton HS) clubbed a two-run single to put the team in front and then added an RBI single during a three-run second inning.

Once the Falcons settled down, they continued to add to their run total, while sophomore pitcher Samantha Islas (Roosevelt HS) was taming the Huskies. She came on in the first inning and after allowing an unearned run in the second inning, limited East LA to one baserunner the remainder of the game. Islas (7-6) allowed two hits and struck out four batters.

With two outs in the bottom of the third inning and the bases loaded, sophomore first baseman Richere Leduc (California HS) launched a bases clearing double. Sophomore second baseman Alyssa Sotelo (El Rancho HS), who went 3-for-3 with a walk and scored four times, opened the fifth inning with a triple and came home on the play when a wild throw went over ELAC third baseman Alexis Alvarez's head. After a Leduc single, Velazquez ended the game with a two-run blast.

Along with Sotelo, Velaszuez went 3-for-4 with five RBI, while Leduc drove in four runs.

Photos by Daryl Peterson