By Noe Ortega
East Los Angeles College Softball broke its two game losing streak after a 6-4 win against Long Beach City College yesterday at home.
The first few innings did not yield any points for ELAC. It took the team a while to find its rythm.
The Huskies were behind by two runs in the fifth inning when sophomore outfielder Dominique De Alba hit a bunt that Long Beach freshman infielder Ashley Pozo made an error on.
The error allowed sophomores Angelina Gonzalez and Emily Sanchez to score and tie the game.
Freshman infielder Angelita Villalvazo regained the lead for ELAC after an RBI by De Alba to make it 4-3.
Despite a few scares late in the game, the Huskies did not relenquish the lead.
“I am very happy with the result. After being down by two runs and coming back we had a couple of setbacks in the game with injuries, but at the end we came back,” ELAC head coach Erika Blanco said.
ELAC proceeded to take more of a lead after Gonzalez hit an RBI double to bring home sophomore utility Destiny Avena and Sanchez to make it 6-3.
“We had a bad call in the third inning that brought us down a little bit, but we bounced back and I’m glad we did,” Gonzalez said.
“After the great inning we had I think our confidence was really high but we just had to stay strong and know that your team is good enough to finish it no matter what, they came out hitting but I think we out hit them and our defense was strong.”
After taking the lead in the first inning, Long Beach immediately responded in the second inning with an RBI single from sophomore outfielder Alijah Vega that tied the game 1-1.
Long Beach took the lead off an RBI and a single run from Long Beach freshman infielder Elena Vizcarra to make it 3-1.
Blanco praised her players after staying calm and responding to Long Beach after a tough fourth inning.
“We told them to stay calm, to keep playing as we always do. We still have three more innings to go so let’s keep our heads in the game,” Blanco said.
The Huskies had a setback in the seventh inning when Long Beach sophomore pitcher Alissa Cienfuegos hit a solo home run to make it 6-4.
“Long Beach was a tough opponent. Their pitcher, Cienfuegos, especially gave us a hard time. We knew going into this game that it was going to be difficult, but we were confident that we would take the win and we did,” Blanco said.
The last time the Huskies played against Long Beach was last Feburary and ELAC lost 15-5 at home.
ELAC’s next game will be tomorrow against Compton College at 3 p.m. at Compton.