Vaqueros Sweep Dramatic Doubleheader

By Jimmy Friery

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara City College Softball team (15-20) won both games of their Friday doubleheader against Southwestern (18-15) in dramatic fashion. After an extra-innings walk-off single in game one, they scored all three of their runs in the final two innings for a comeback victory in game two.

Game one: Santa Barbara 10, Southwestern 9 (8 inn.)

The first game was a bit of a wild ride. Allowing a run in the top of the first, the Vaqueros scored three in the bottom half with Anja Perreira's RBI single and Mia Gaitan's two-run triple.

Immediately after, the visitors scored three to make it 4-3 Southwestern going into the middle of the second.

After striking out two in the top half of the third, Sammi Korte helped her own cause, hitting a two-run double to take the lead. Later in the inning, Aila Leoffler and Kaylee Carrillo both hit RBI singles to give the Vaqueros a 7-4 advantage.

Emphasizing the game's roller coaster nature, Southwestern homered on the first pitch of the top of the fourth. Korte limited any further damage, though, and Bella Cox's RBI single in the fifth made it 8-5 Santa Barbara. That score held until the top of the seventh.

Three outs away from victory, Southwestern led off with a single and then hit back-to-back homers to suddenly tie the game at 8-8. Neither team scored the rest of the inning, and the game headed to extras.

With an automatic runner placed on second, Southwestern scored on a groundout to take a 9-8 lead. But the Vaqueros ended the back-and-forth game with a bang.

Needing one run to tie, and two to win, Ruby Bartholomew led off the bottom of the eighth with a bunt. It worked, somewhat. She reached first—score it a single—but Cox could not advance as the automatic runner. Gracie Verdugo—who already had three hits on the day—then grounded out, but both runners advanced to put the winning run in scoring position. That is exactly what happened as Perriera ripped a single in a 3-2 count to score them both, giving the Vaqueros a walk-off victory.

Remarkably, this was the team's fifth walk-off victory of their seven home wins on the year.

Game two: Santa Barbara 3, Southwestern 2

For all the craziness of game one, game two was a pure pitchers' duel. Starting Bartholomew in the circle, she allowed a two-run homer in the top of the first. That would be all the runs she would surrender for the game. Even more so, she only allowed one hit against 13 of the next 14 batters.

But the Vaqueros were not doing much offensively, either—until the fifth inning. Gaitan led off with a double, then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. Maite Juarez's groundout scored her to cut the deficit to 2-1. Now with two outs, Cox singled and advanced to second on an error by the shortstop. Bartholomew then helped her cause with another single to tie the game.

In the top of the sixth, back-to-back leadoff singles put Bartholomew in a jam. After a strikeout and fielder's choice, she walked the following batter to load the bases with two outs. A lineout got her out of the inning with the score intact at 2-2.

Once again, a Vaquero hitter needed to clutch up. Korte and Amarisse Camargo started the bottom of the sixth with a walk and single, and Carrillo's RBI single gave the Vaqueros their first lead—now 3-2.

Three outs away from a Santa Barbara victory for the second time of the day, Southwestern then had runners on first and third with one out. However, a lineout double play saved the game for the Vaqueros, who earned a doubleheader sweep.

Bartholomew pitched all seven innings to earn the win. Both Cox and Verdugo had two hits.

Back to conference play, the Vaqueros next host Cuesta on Tuesday at 2 p.m.