Baseball: Owls Win Duel with Wolverines

Glendora, CA - The Citrus College Baseball team picked up their second straight win and their fifth of their last six games on Friday afternoon 3-1 over visiting San Bernardino Valley. The Owls won a duel with the visiting Wolverines, using strong defense and getting nine innings of solid work between four different pitchers.

Neither team would have anything going in the opening frame, but both squads managed to load up the bases in the top and bottom of the second. In each instance though, both scoring threats ended up harmless as each stranded a trio of runners.

In the third, the Wolverines would break through with the first run of the game. A sacrifice fly to center field was just deep enough to score the runner from third, allowing San Bernardino's only run of the inning. Citrus would answer an inning later when sophomore Go Hattori plated freshman Jack Strickland with a single to right. Two batters later, a fielder's choice ground out by freshman Anthony Mico would bring in freshman Brett Bowers to give Citrus a 2-1 lead through four.

Those two runs, would end up being all the offense the Owls would need on the afternoon. Freshman Diego Cruz got the start on the bump for Citrus, giving up four hits, the one run, in three innings of work, striking out three batters in the process. Sophomore Mario Castro (2-0) would take over for Cruz in the top of the fourth, giving up a pair of hits and a pair of walks, recording two strikeouts, on his way to getting credit for the win.

With the pitching and defense doing its job, the Owls offense gave them a smidge more cushion in the bottom of the fifth. Freshman Andrew Duran provided the fireworks, hitting an absolute shot to right-center (the deepest part of the field at Citrus College) for his second home run of the year. It's thought to be the first home run to that part of the field by a right-handed batter in at least the last 10 years.

On the hill, freshmen Erick Olivares and Tommy Liu would slam the door closed. Olivares finished the seventh and the eighth innings, allowing just one base runner, while striking out two. Liu would get his second save of the season, pitching the ninth inning. Liu got a pair of ground balls, and a fly ball to center to end the game.

With the win, Citrus improves to 5-3 on the year. The Owls will head up the 101 Freeway on Saturday afternoon to take on Ventura College (3-3). First pitch is set for 1:00 PM.