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By Jarred Jackson | Staff Writer
Things are looking good so far for the Riverside City College Softball team as they gear up for the start of the season. They are already 2-0 in non-conference play.
When asked about her team starting off the season 2-0 with a two game win streak, head coach Michelle Daddona explains, “We knew we were going to open this year with an extremely tough schedule because originally we were scheduled to double header with (Sacramento) City and Mt. Sac and then shortly after that Cerritos. Sacramento City we knew was going to be very strong this year. Mt. Sac and Cerritos are both always strong contenders so right off the bat we could have been off to a start where we didn’t pile up a lot of victories but we also knew for ourselves that we really felt we were going to have a very strong team coming in to 2013.”
Coach Daddona also explains that there are some things that need to be worked on, “Right now our biggest challenge has been team practices because we have a couple people that have their class schedule so they are not out here the same time as we are so that’s why this last week we made an adjustment in practice times so that way everybody could be here.”
In their game against Mt. Sac, the Tigers came out not really ready to play, but they started realizing what needed to be done and came out on top with a final score of 7-3.
In their second game of the season which was against the Cerritos College Falcons, Sophomore right hand pitcher Katherine Macias helped contribute to the win by hitting a two-run home run and sophomore second basemen Gina Grijalva went four for four to propel the host team RCC Tigers women’s Fastpitch team to a 7-3 non-conference win over the visiting Cerritos College Falcons Friday afternoon at Evans Sports Complex on Feb. 1.
Macias, who is from Riverside Arlington high school, broke a 2-2 tie with her second at bat of the season, a two-run bomb over the left field, to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead. She also had a RBI single in the first inning and finished by going two for four with three RBI‘s and one run scored. She struggled in the beginning with her control, but went the distance and allowed eight hits and three runs all unearned with five walks and seven strikeouts. Macias who is 1-0, tossed a whopping 166 pitches with 107 strikes.
Grijalva out of Fontana Summit High school singled in the first, third, fourth and sixth innings for the Tigers.
Cerritos tied the game with two unearned runs in the second on a fielding error; a RBI single by Andrea Arellano and a RBI double by Jamie Ramirez (which scored Arellano.) Arellano added a RBI single in the sixth as well. Starting RHP Ramirez (1-1) lasted only the first two innings as she allowed three runs (all earned) on five hits.
Both teams continued nonconference action this week. Cerritos hosted Palomar College where Cerritos lost 8-0. Riverside will visit the Southwestern College Jaguars on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 3 p.m.
