BASEBALL: Citrus Sweeps Series With AVC

Citrus College swept the three-game series with Antelope Valley College with a 9-7 victory Saturday afternoon. 

The Fighting Owls improve to 9-10 on the year and remain unbeaten in Western State Conference – South action at 3-0. The Marauders drop to 10-7 overall, 0-3 in conference.

Enrique Zaldivar picked up the win on the mound, tossing six innings without a hit and striking out five batters.

AVC scored first, plating three runs in the top of the second, but Citrus responded in the bottom half of the inning.

Andrew Duran led the inning off with a hard-hit ball to shortstop and was joined on base by Tyler Kretschmar, who singled to left. The Marauders managed to get an out, but Justin Sankey loaded the bases after being hit by a rogue pitch. Anthony Mico then walked in the first run, before Kanta Kobayashi stepped into the batters box and blasted a hit to second base, allowing two runs to come home, 3-3. 

With runners on the corners, Kobayashi stole second and Mico took advantage of the throw to score the go-ahead run, 4-3. Kobayashi made his way to third on a passed ball and came home on a Brett Bowers single to right field, 5-3.

The Marauders tacked on four more runs in the third, but the Owls kept battling. Alejandro Loera sacrificed a fly ball to score Kretschmar in the third, before Duran scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to tie the game up, 7-7. With two outs and two runners on in the seventh, Mico knocked an RBI single to give the Owls back their lead.

Joshua Guzman put the final dagger in with a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to secure the 9-7 victory for Citrus. 

The Owls are back in action Monday, hosting LA Valley at 2:30 p.m. The game was moved up from Tuesday due to pending rain.