The Long Beach City College softball team rallied for three runs in the 7th inning, but still fell short to Citrus College by the score of 6-5.
Viking’s pitching started off slow, giving up two runs in each of the first two innings.
Citrus ended up adding two more runs and finished with a total of 15 hits against the Vikings.
The Vikings were hoping to have a better showing after shutting out Compton College the previous game and only giving up a total of four hits.
The softball season is coming to an end with only five more games left to play before regionals and LBCC needs to win out as they sit at 9-9 in their conference.
All remaining games for the Vikings are important as they look to push into the playoffs.
Dan Garcia, announcer for the team, spoke candidly regarding the team’s situation.
“Every game in league is a must win and this is a good test for this team,” Garcia said.
Before the game commenced, Assistant Coach Mike Rogers gave his assessment of the team from Citrus College.
“The team is just focused on competing… we don’t know much about them,” Rogers said.
Ashley Pozo and Jade Wittman each provided two hits for the Vikings while the rest of the team only added three more to the total.
Wittman continues her hot streak adding to her 2019 totals, keeping her batting average at .485 over the course of the season, while driving in 20 runs and scoring 24 herself.
Both teams went on rallies of their own, but for the Vikings, it came a little late as they needed one more run to tie the ballgame up.
Catcher Jocelyn Cebedo spoke a little bit about the loss.
“Coach told us to give our best effort and we did… we stood in the dogfight and just came up a little short,” Cebado said.
With the loss, the Vikings record in the South Coast Conference stands at 9-9 while their overall record is at 18-16.
Next, the Vikings will host Santa Ana College for the first time this year on April 9 at 2 p.m.