Cerritos Shades Riverside, 5-3, in Opener of Best-of-Three-game Series
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cerritos | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 2 |
|
Riverside | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
RIVERSIDE -- Playing from behind for most of the latter stages of the game, the Riverside City College (RCC) Tigers women's fastpitch softball team dropped the opener of a CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoff best-of-three-games series, 5-3, to the visiting Cerritos College Falcons Saturday evening (May 3) at Brown Field (Evans Sports Complex).
Cerritos (31-11), seeded No. 10 in the region broke a scoreless tie with a three-run home run in the top of the fourth inning, then pushed across a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning to snap a 3-3 tie en route to the win.
Sophomore CF Arianna Hernandez (Norwalk) socked the first pitch she saw to left-center field with two runners on base to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead. The Falcons then pushed across the go-ahead and insurance runs on a RBI single by frosh RF Joanna Peruccio (Long Beach) and a sacrifice fly by frosh pinch hitter Haley Petrucelli (Torrance), respectively. Peruccio had two hits for Cerritos.
Riverside (28-12), seeded No. 7 in the regional playoffs, tied the game in the bottom of the fourth with three unearned runs. Frosh 3B Breanna Valles (Riverside / Roosevelt HS) and frosh 1B Kaylie Garcia (Grand Terrace / Colton HS) singled and scored in the stanza. Frosh DP Jesslene Contreras (Fontana / Kaiser HS) socked a game-tying sacrifice fly for RCC. Valles had two hits to pace the Tigers.
Cerritos sophomore RHP Kat Flores (Pico Rivera), who was originally listed as the starting pitcher, came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth inning and pitch the final three frames and allowed only one hit and one walk to notch the win and improve to 13-2. RCC starting RHP MacKenzie Maxwell (Calimesa / Yucaipa HS) went the distance (151 pitches, 81 strikes) and allowed all five runs (earned) on seven hits and seven walks as her record fell to 13-5.
Game two of the best-of-three-games series will be played on Sunday, May 4, at 2 p.m. If a third game (of the series) is necessary, it would played one-half hour after the 2 p.m. game.
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