East LA Kicks Off 10-Game Homestand with Wild Comeback Win

by Cerwin D Haynes

(photos by Henry Caceres)

Coming into today, East LA College softball has had a rough week, being held scoreless in five-inning loses at Long Beach on Tuesday and Cerritos yesterday. With the Seahawks of LA Harbor College coming into Monterey Park today, the Huskies had a chance to wash the bad taste of those two loses out of their mouths and grab a precious conference win. The Pack (7-13, 2-6) came close to letting today's game slip away as Harbor (6-14, 2-5) led for most of the game, but they took the lead with a furious six-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning and hung on for a wild 14-12 win. 3B Leiloni Pina was perfect from the plate, batting 5-5 with 3RBI, while P Sophia Priebe came on in relief of Alexis Romo in the fourth and earned her sixth win of the season.

LA Harbor jumped on ELAC early, taking leads of 3-1 and then 8-1 in the early innings. But to East's credit, whenever Harbor scored in the top half of the inning, the Huskies came up with some sort of response in the bottom half. To wit:

• LA Harbor scored three runs in the top half of the first inning; ELAC scored one in the bottom. 3-1 deficit.
• Then in the third, Harbor plated five runs in the top half, but the home Green answered with two in the bottom. 8-3 deficit.
• In the fourth, LAHC scored two more, yet the Huskies answered with two runs of their own. 10-5 deficit.

In the fifth inning, Harbor tacked on another run in the top half of the ining. East LA countered with three runs in the bottom, and closed within three, 11-8. By answering every inning Harbor scored with their own scoring, the Huskies were able to stay within arm's reach of the Seahawks. This set up the next inning, the sixth, for the big home rally.

First, ELAC had to figure a way to finally stem Harbor's scoring. With runners on first and second with one out, Priebe caught DP Malayna Talamantes looking at strike three over the plate for a well-timed strikeout. The next batter, LF Carrera Dilliard, made illegal contact with a two-strike pitch, giving ELAC head coach Erika Blanco the option of taking strike three on Dillard. With two outs, it was an easy decision for the coach: strike three, end of inning with no runs scored.

The Huskies got to work quickly in the bottom frame. Pina led off by slapping a single to left, and took second on a wild pitch as Priebe batted. Priebe then singled to right, advancing Pina to third. RF Zahyra Venecia (Corado) - who was inserted for Tyana Ponce - was next up. She hit a grounder to short and appeared to be out when the throw reached first. At the same time, Pina baited an off-kilter throw to third from Burgueno, and scored with Harbor out of position defensively.

Coach Blanco had her eagle eyes working during the whole play. She successfully contested that 1B Mylaya Burgueno's foot was off the bag when Venecia reached. The umpires conferred, and agreed with her. Venecia was safe on the error, and with the run scored, the Pack drew within two, 11-9.

2B Jocelyn Solorzano, who came on for starting second baseman Rya Rivas, was next. She also hits an infield grounder to the left side, which was fielded and thrown to first. And again, Burgueno's foot was ultimately ruled to have been off the bag when Solorzano reached (with Coach Blanco right there to point it out... again). Bases loaded with Huskies, and no one out. Opportunity was knocking loudly for the Pack.

The next batter, leadoff hitter Nathaly Ochoa, answered the door: a single to left to drive in Priebe. The left fielder fumbled with the ball as she was fielding the hit, and that allowed Venecia to score. Tie game at 11-up.

LFAdriana Martinez was up next, and with momentum clearly with the Green, she blooped an RBI single to right to drive in Solorzano. East LA finally had the lead at 12-11... but they weren't done.

It was 1B Alicia Amaya next up to ride the rally wave, and she did by blasting an RBI double deep to center over the glove of Marina Hinojosa to drive in Ochoa from third for a 13-11 lead. But with the high-scoring nature of this game, perhaps one more run would give ELAC a decent cushion. They got it with the next batter, as LF/CF Arianna Urias hit a sacrifice fly to center, allowing Martinez to tag up from third and scamper home. That ended the scoring burst for ELAC: six runs on six hits and three errors to take the lead.

In the top of the seventh, the game was Priebe's to win as she again took the mound. She induced a groundout to third by the first batter, Evelyn Iniquez. She also got Ava Farias to ground to short, where ironically Priebe started the game at. But Nathaly Ochoa, who took over for her in the fourth, got ate up by the grounder and couldn't make a throw to first. Farias then took second on a passed ball as Ashley Parra batted, but Priebe locked-in and struck out Parra looking for the second out. Hinojosa was up next, and for a moment, made things a bit nervous for the Pack when she rapped a single to right which scored Farias from second. But Hinojosa got greedy and tried to take second when the throw came in from the outfield to first. Amaya threw the ball to Ochoa covering second, and tagged Hinojosa standing up before she could reach. Huskies complete the comeback win.

HUSKY BITS

Lots of offense in this one, as ELAC had 20 hits in 38 at-bats.

• Ochoa went 2-5, with 1RBI and three runs scored
• Amaya went 3-4 with two doubles, 4RBI and two runs scored.
• Urias went 3-4, also with two doubles, adding 2RBI with two runs scored.
• Solorzano went 1-3 with two runs scored.
• Priebe went 3-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Coach Blanco had Priebe start the day at SS to give her a bit of a break from a tough physical week. Having been called onto the mound in relief, she picked up her sixth win of the season (6-6).
• For LA Harbor, Evelyn Iniquez (hitting 2-5) and Mylaya Burgueno (hitting 3-4) each had 3RBI.

UP NEXT:

The Huskies completed game one of a rare ten-game homestand that will take them into early April. Several of these games are makeups from early-season rainouts. They'll take the weekend to prepare for a week of conference home games, starting with El Camino on Tuesday, followed by Compton on Thursday and Pasadena City on Friday.