Huntington Beach, Calif. - The Golden West softball team defeated Citrus College 12-3 in six innings to cap off their first home game of the season on Wednesday. 

"It was really special, I mean we want to represent the college well," Head Coach Mike Willey said. "It [was] our first chance to do it, [and] I thought we did a good job." 

Pitching through arm soreness, sophomore Lali Rios went six innings, giving up six hits and the only three runs the Owls would score for the remainder of the game in the top of the second inning. As of now, Willey does not see this soreness stopping Rios from future playing time, and was proud of her performance on the mound. 

With a breakthrough second inning, the Rustlers did not let the Owls remain on top for long. The Rustlers drew three walks right off the bat and stayed aggressive on the bases. Sevin Birdwell reached home on a wild pitch, putting the Rustlers on the board. A triple from Jazmine Rodriguez batted in two more runners, and three more singles tallied up a seven-run inning for the Rustlers. They would go on to score one run in the third inning and four in the sixth to shut the game down with a mercy rule. 

After this team fell to Citrus 14-9 the day before, they were not going to let the Owls defeat them on their home field.   

"When you don't have a practice between wins and losses you can't correct errors," Willey said. "We had the girls come a little bit early today, talked about some of the things we needed to do, we corrected some things, and mentally we were more prepared than we were yesterday."

Postgame interview with Coach Willey

NEXT: The Rustlers will be on the road playing East Los Angeles at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. 

Written By: Marissa Lavezzari