By Fernando Alcantara
Sun managing editor
Winning in the Orange Empire Conference is proving to be difficult as the Golden West softball team lost another close game to OEC rival, Santiago Canyon College Wednesday afternoon, April 7 on Santiago’s home turf.
The Santiago Canyon Hawks went into Wednesday’s game with a three-game win streak, including a win against OEC rival, Fullerton College. The momentum continued for the Hawks as they defeated Golden West, 4-3 in extra innings.
Despite great hitting by the GWC women, out-hitting Santiago Canyon nine hits to seven, a bobble at home plate allowed SCC’s Jessica Brillantes to come in for the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
The bobble by the Rustlers was one of several unfortunate plays for the GWC women. The Rustlers had several missed opportunities if not bad throws that allowed the Hawks to score or advance runners.
Which is not to say that the Rustlers played poorly. They actually played very well.
The ladies of Golden West had stretches of brilliance defensively and managed several times to quell a Santiago offensive; GWC walked SCC’s Chelsea Navarette, a power-hitter, in the bottom of the seventh then ended the inning with a double play.
Great defense aside, it was the mental mistakes such as a ball running through the legs of third baseman Lauren Beard or the bobble at home plate that makes the loss frustrating. This was a game that GWC could have, if not, should have won.
Down 1-3 in the top of the fifth, Golden West’s Lauren Beard hit one deep sending in Nichelle Navarro and Amanda Stropko to tie the game at three all. Both teams would buckle down defensively, keeping the score tied to force extra innings.
The loss is the first game of a stretch of seven Orange Empire Conference games to end the GWC softball season. Four of the remaining games include match-ups against conference-leaders: Riverside, Saddleback, Cypress and a final game against Fullerton.
Going into Wednesday’s game, Santiago and Golden West had split their current series at one apiece and round out the bottom of the conference standings with GWC owning a half game lead.
The loss drops Golden West’s record to 3-13, second to last in the conference and advances Santiago Canyon a game ahead of Golden West at 4-12 with Orange Coast College anchoring the standings.
Any chance of a playoff appearance is now non-existent.
The Golden West women instead look to play spoilers to any of the conference leaders in hopes of changing the outlook of the softball playoffs. Cypress currently leads the conference with Saddleback, Fullerton and Riverside following, respectively.
Golden West plays Saddleback tonight, here at home at 6 p.m.
Congratulations are also in order for GWC softball coach Suzy Brazney who was appointed as an assistant coach on April 5 for the 2010 USA Junior Women’s Softball team.Brazney joins the staff for the World Championship qualifier in Colombia this summer.
