The visiting LA Mission Eagles gave the Bakersfield College softball team a preview of the challenges that await it in the rest of the regular season.
BC, playing its first of three conference doubleheaders in a two-week span, handled those challenges with aplomb.Â
Reacclimating to consistent action after a string of weather-related postponements, the Renegades swept the Eagles. After dispatching them 4-1 in an uneventful opener, they rallied from down 6-0 in the second game of the day, capitalizing on six LA Mission errors in the final four innings and winning 8-7 in extras.
"The biggest thing today was, our kids didn't give up," BC coach Casey Goodman said. "Down six runs, you can just roll over and throw in the towel, and they didn't. They believed."
With two outs in the eighth inning, Destiny Cuellar seized on a pitch from Sam Flores and drove it to the wall in right-center field, scoring Kady Smith from third base to win the game.
"We have a lot of clutch hitters," Cuellar said. "Let me tell you, it wasn't me who won this game, it was all of us who won this game together."
Cuellar, a catcher by trade who played most of Thursday's doubleheader in right field, only got her fateful at-bat because of a dropped popup moments earlier, and Smith was only on base because of an error at shortstop during Rylee Price's at-bat.
The Renegades, who are now 16-11 (8-2 in league play), will take it, as they maintained a half-game lead in the hotly contested Western State Conference, in which five teams have at least six wins.Â
"I think we're the cardiac kids right now, but we need that momentum," Goodman said. "We need that momentum to go into the rest of conference. We still stay in that first place spot, and we're still good in RPI."
BC 4, LA Mission 1
One three-run inning, headlined by Anika Romo’s two-RBI double, made the difference for the Renegades in what was otherwise a pitcher’s duel.
Sam Flores began the game with three perfect innings for the Eagles, and Jizzell Ruiz came around to score on an Eliza Flores bloop single in the third. But a one-out fielding error in the fourth inning gave BC its first baserunner in Alyna Ruiz, and Price drew a full-count walk to set up Romo’s drive off the glove of center fielder Deja Rubio.
Cuellar walked and Stephanie Kay singled to bring home another run before LA Mission got out of the inning. The Renegades managed to tack on their final run in the fifth in the form of Camille Chavez, who reached base on a leadoff bunt single, stole second and got to third on a wild pitch before Shelbie Valencia scored her with a sacrifice fly.
Ryleigh Harrison, who allowed just the one Eagle run on five hits in seven innings, fended off a pair of late-inning hits from catcher Cristabelle Alvarado. She doubled to open the fifth inning when the umpires ruled that Breanna Marquez did not secure a diving catch attempt near the foul line in left field. But Harrison struck out Jizzell Ruiz, got Lizbeth Mora to fly out, and knocked down a Lily Stell line drive that she tossed to Romo on first to end the inning.
In the seventh, Alvarado’s one-out single amounted to nothing after Harrison retired Ruiz and Mora again.
For BC, Cuellar drew a pair of walks as one of just two Renegades (along with Alyna Ruiz) to reach base multiple times.
BC 8, LA Mission 7Â (eight innings)
The Eagles' hitters got to Harrison and Smith for six early runs, but a gradually improving BC offense, exacerbated by LA Mission's defensive meltdown, allowed the Renegades to come back.
Even before Cuellar came up for her walk-off single, BC tied the game at 7-7 to send it to extra innings when two runs scored due to a high throw from shortstop on what would have been a game-ending Valencia groundout. Kay and Marquez had come aboard on one-out singles in the seventh inning, then advanced into scoring position on a Chavez flyout.
LA Mission's lead might have been even greater than two runs, but with two outs in the top of the seventh, Alvarado had gotten tagged out sprinting for home as Joanna Jimenez stole second.
The Eagles got big contributions offensively from Jizzell Ruiz and Sevannah Miller, who had three hits apiece. Stell hit a two-run home run to open the scoring in the first inning, which Alvarado (2-for-2 with a double and two walks) and Ruiz backed up with RBI singles in the second.
Smith relieved Harrison and escaped a fourth-inning jam, but Harrison was unable to return the favor when she reentered in the fifth after Smith walked the bases loaded. Jasmine Villegas gave LA Mission its 6-0 lead with a double to right-center field.
Price, who went 3-for-5, and Smith repeatedly got on base, but the rest of the lineup wasn't initially able to back them up. That changed when Valencia doubled and Alyna Ruiz singled to chase starter Daryanna Ductoc and bring in Sam Flores, setting up Price and Smith to drive in one run each before a fielding error sent Price home later in the inning.Â
The Renegades chipped away again, bringing the score to 6-5 in the sixth on a dropped ball in right field and an Alyna Ruiz sacrifice fly, but Smith got stranded on base.
Harrison came out shaky, allowing a run on back-to-back doubles to Miller and Alvarado, but escaped jams in both the seventh and eighth innings to clear space for the BC rally and earn her second win of the day.
