Desert Defeats Rio Hondo To keep Foothill Conf Race Alive
A great softball game was played today at College of the Desert. Coming into the game Rio Hondo Community College held a one game lead over the home Roadrunners with an opportunity to secure the Foothill Conference Title.
It was an incredibly hard fought game by both teams. Rio Hondo scored two unearned runs in the 3rd inning and tacked on another run in the fourth inning to jump out to a 3-0 lead going into the 6th inning. Rio Hondo had an opportunity to seal the game with two outs and bases loaded in the top of the 6th inning when Myranda Libunao from Temescal Canyon high school pitched a hard ground ball to 3rd base. Kalen Gopperton from Cajon high school initially bobbled the ball but held on to touch 3rd base for the force play and save disaster. However, disaster did strike the Roadrunners in the bottom half of the 6th still down 3 runs when La Quinta's Lauren Ortiz was injured attempting to break up a double play. Ortiz led the inning off with a single but attempted to break up a ground ball double play and was injured.
The Roadrunners now had two outs with nobody on base and their star short stop and number 3 hitter laying injured on the ball field. Play was halted for nearly twenty minutes until trainers were able to escort Ortiz off the field.
Down by three with 2 outs and no base runners and their star player injured the Roadrunners could have quit and called it a day and Rio Hondo was just four outs from winning the Conference title. However, all the Roadrunners did was rack up 5 straight two out clutch hits and score four runs to take the lead. After the double play Cajon's Kalen Gopperton singled to right field, then La Quinta's Dominque Rivas came into the game as a pinch hitter and drilled a ball up the middle.
The turning point came when Sabrina Sotelo from Mira Loma smashed a triple to the right center field gap scoring both base runners. With the game tying run on 3rd base, Eleanor Roosevelt grad Kendra Mendoza drilled a double to the left center field gap. Blythe's Sarrah Bolding stepped to the plate and smashed a single to left field scoring Mendoza all the way from second base to take the lead.
However, the Roadrunners put themselves back in trouble with a couple of hits then a hit batter and finally a walk to bring in the 4th run of the game for Rio Hondo, with bases loaded and the game tied in the top of the 7th, Myranda Libunao recorded a much needed strike out to end the threat and leave the bases loaded for the second straight inning.
In the bottom of the 7th inning with the game tied at four, Temecula Valley's Kayla Kobler singled to left field - however it was time for the number 3 batter to hit and Lauren Ortiz was injured and out of the game so the duties fell on reserve pitcher Alexis Ramirez from Upland CA to step in and drop the much needed bunt to move the runner. Ramirez laid down a perfect bunt moving Kobler into scoring position. The very next batter Kiana Holder from Hemet CA drilled a ball between the short stop and 3rd baseman and coach Armstrong waived the runner to the plate, in a dramatic ending Kayla Kobler slid wide at home plate just scraping the edge for a bang bang walk off scoring run.
The victory keeps the Foothill Conference title very much alive as the Roadrunners move into a tie with Rio Hondo and San Bernardino Valley atop the Conference.
Sarrah Bolding "it feels amazing! Because we were all a team - we did it as one whole group! There's too many great moments! Those are the games that I'm proud to be a part of."
Linda Ontiveros says "still in the run for our 4th consecutive conference title."
Kiana Holder says "our fate is still in our hands."
Assistant Coach Ken Mason says "when they talk about a team win, this was it."
Head Coach Thomas Armstrong states "that was one the toughest most clutch wins of my career, it was a pleasure to be a part of that game, we had so many opportunities to quit and we chose not too and every single player in uniform participated and contributed to that victory."