LBCC Softball beat El Camino College on a sunny, yet gusty Tuesday afternoon at home with a score of 7-4, behind another home run from Gladys Garcia and composed pitching from Daisy Torres.
Coach Fa was running fly ball drills pregame with bare handed players and tennis balls. There were no drops in the outfield during the game.
Family and friends greeted each other in the stands. The men’s volleyball team was a late arrival to the stands on the third-base side but provided vocal support during a jam in the fifth inning.
Before the fifth inning, there was much to be said about the Vikings’ offense through four innings.
Kristin Sanchez began a two run first with a shot off of the fence in center for a double. Jaylene Ross drove Sanchez home for her first of two RBIs on the day.
A sideways spinning seeing-eye-single off the hot bat of Gladys Garcia was able to score Ross, after Ross advanced to third base on a deep double to center by Ileana Rivera.
“It was just funny how I just went with it. I scored a run, so what can I say,” Garcia said.
It is worth mentioning Rivera made some tough plays throughout the game at the hot corner.
After the Viking offense took a breath in the second inning, Ross started off the third inning with a double to her favorite part of the field; left-center. Rivera walked to provide the second runner for Garcia’s three home run streak.
“Well my coaches just tell me to go up there and do your thing,” Garcia said, “I just think ground ball and if it goes far, then it goes far. I’m kinda glad though, coming off of the bench and going as DP (designated player) it’s a good feeling.”
With two runners on in the fourth inning, Jaylene Ross was able to take advantage of a unique shift put on by El Camino.
The middle infielders were shifted far towards the lines on their respective sides and the outfielders were playing straight up.
“Their shortstop and their third baseman play really close together and their second basemen and first baseman play really close together. And their outfield plays regularly,” Ross explained, “Because our lefties on our team don’t pull the ball we go with the ball. We hit up the middle a lot. They’ve kind of just charted us to see the way we hit it based on our swings.”
The fifth inning began with a walk to El Camino’s Jocelynn Hernandez and the score was 7-0. The next hitter had a 2-0 count. Jaylene Ross then went to calm the nerves of her ace pitcher.
“She’ll call me up to the mound. She did that this game, or I’ll call time if she needs it,” Ross said postgame. “We’ll just talk about random stuff, like ‘how does my hair look?’ Just random stuff to calm her down.”
The Warriors of El Camino were still able to squeeze four runs out of the fifth inning by way of well-placed hits and a few walks.
Daisy Torres was able to avoid any damage throughout the next couple of innings and accomplish another complete game for her 20th win of the season.
Torres has thrown 159.1 innings in 32 appearances this season and has a 2.72 ERA with a total of 89 strikeouts.
The Vikings are 26-10 and are looking to finish the regular season strong with two games left in the regular season before regionals start on May 6.