Travis West | Sports Editor
The Riverside City College softball team will begin its run at a state title tied for the No. 1 state ranking with College of San Mateo according to the most recent coaches’ poll.
Right behind the Tigers are their conference rival Cypress College sitting in third. The Tigers took on the Chargers for the final time this season on April. 12.
Cypress College has won the past three state championships, making every game against them a measuring stick to how close the Tigers are from winning their own.
The game was a battle with both teams looking for their first run.
Cypress would score first in the top of the fourth. The Chargers were able to get their bats working just enough to get one run batted in (RBI) and capitalized on a Tiger fielding error to score their second run of the inning.
With just two inning left, the Tigers responded in a big way in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Tigers had a total of six RBI’s in the game. Five of them came in the fifth. Katherine Macias
and Gina Girijalva finished the game with one RBI each.
Desiree Broussard’s double to left field in the fifth inning brought in three runs and put the Tigers over the top as the Tigers went on to shut down the Chargers the rest of the game with the score
of 6-2.
Broussard didn’t finish in the fifth, just for good measure she decided to tally one more RBI in the bottom of the sixth. Broussard finished with one run, two hits and four RBI’s in three at bats.
The season series that was once tied at 1-1, now favors the Tigers.
Although the Tigers have had success against the three time state champion Chargers, they have stuggled against an opponent they dominated early in the season.
Santiago Canyon College delivered the Tigers their third loss of the season on April 17.
In the closely contested matchup, the Hawks kept the Tigers to three runs all game.
In the bottom of the seventh the Hawks were able to win the game with a solo shot home run by SCC’s Taylor Ousley that put the Hawks up for good by score of 4-3.
The Tigers got back to their winning ways quickly after the loss with a mercy rule victory in only six innings over the Golden West Rustlers 9-0 on April 20 and a win over Mt. San Antonio College
5-4.
The Tigers will play host to their first opponent at regionals on May 4-5.
