The Citrus College Owls defeated their conference rival Antelope Valley Marauders, 7-6, on March 23 at the Owl’s Nest.
The Owls came into the game with a 14-9 overall record and a 4-2 conference record, while the Marauders came in with a 13-10 overall record and a 2-4 conference record.
The teams played each other on March 20, the Owls winning 15-5.
The game was scoreless until the top of the third when Marauders sophomore Ethan Avant hit a solo home run to left field.
The Owls responded in the bottom of the fourth when sophomore Donovyn Curiel hit a two-run home run that brought in freshman Teppei Fukuda to take a 2-1 lead.
“That was a great feeling,” Curiel said, describing the home run. “The score was 1-0 at that point, we had a runner on and I put it over the fence and it was 2-1, put my team on board and helped my team win.”
The Owls used the long ball again in the bottom of the fifth inning to extend the lead when sophomore Kristian Scott hit a two-run home run that also brought in freshman Thomas Chavez to take a 4-1 lead.
Even down 4-1 the Marauders still put up a fight, as they tied the game with the help of an RBI double from sophomore John Reyes and a two-RBI single from sophomore Daniel Gomez in the top of the sixth inning.
“I don’t think we played well at all,” Owls coach Gomez said. “We had several leads, gave up the leads, especially late in the game, our approaches at the plate were not as disciplined as they should’ve been, I’m excited to have a win anytime but I just think there were a lot of breakdowns on the field.”
The Owls took the lead back in the bottom of the sixth when freshman and the Owls leader in hits and RBIs Thomas Chavez hit a single to bring in sophomore Benjamin Aguilera to make the score 5-4 for the Owls.
The seventh and eighth innings would have both the Owls and Marauders trading one-run innings.
In the top of the seventh, sophomore Anthony Parisi singled to tie the game, in the bottom of the seventh, the Owls took the lead again when sophomore Jesse Villalobos doubled to make the score 6-5 for the Owls.
“At least some guys came through down the stretch,” Gomez said. “They put the barrel on the ball down the stretch, so that’s nice to have.”
In the top of the eighth, the Marauders leader in hits and RBIs sophomore Kyle Lathrop tied the game with a solo shot to left field.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Chavez got the game-winning RBI when he hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in freshman Kirk Cabana to take a 7-6 lead.
“We played well today,” Marauders coach Livermont said. “7-6 game we get a base runner, we get a base hit right there we’re still playing right now and there’s no interview,but that’s baseball and it’s one game out of forty, we get a chance to get back when Citrus comes up to our place tomorrow morning so we get a chance again, we’re trying to avoid a sweep.”
The Owls had 11 hits and no errors while the Marauders had 14 hits but two errors.
The winner and loser of this game were both relief pitchers.
Sophomore Matthew Sanchez got the win and moved to 2-3 while sophomore Trevor Morrison got his first loss of the season to move to 0-1.
The Owls moved to 3-0 against the Marauders this season.
