Kiyomi Kikuchi
The Pierce College softball team was beaten by Citrus College 3-17 on Thursday, with the umpire calling for mercy in the fifth inning.In the first inning, Pierce matched Citrus run for run with Citrus scoring two runs in the top and Pierce answering with two runs in the bottom of the inning.”I was pumped in the bottom of the first,” said Pierce team captain Jamie Domine. “We thought we might be able to give them a run for their money,” said assistant coach Gregg Wertz. He explained that Pierce knew Citrus was going to score runs, so Pierce just needed to match them. Unfortunately, Pierce couldn’t match Citrus.After the first inning, Pierce allowed Citrus four runs in the second and two runs in the third inning. Head coach Pat Grennan said that Pierce pitcher Alyse Scarmozzino did a good job pitching, but the outfielders couldn’t catch fly balls and the infielders made errors. The game was decided in the fifth inning. Scarmozzino’s once-sharp pitching started to get dull, according to Grennan. She walked two Citrus batters and allowed four outfield hits.Additionally, Pierce outfielders dropped two balls that should have been caught and infielders also missed the balls. “Pierce allowed nine runs, seven of them because of errors,” said Wertz. “We probably could have gotten out of that inning with only two runs scoring if we didn’t make any errors.” In the bottom of the fifth, Domine scored on a three-base hit, but it couldn’t make up for the 14-run deficit. The game ended in the fifth inning, two innings earlier than normal. The umpire used the mercy rule, which allows a game to be called early if one team leads by a large margin. In the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a game ends in the case of an eight-run deficit after the fifth inning. “Disappointed,” remarked Grennan, reacting after the game. He pointed out that Pierce had only one pitcher, whereas Citrus had three pitchers and one of them, Brittany Patterson, was the best pitcher in the conference. From the fourth inning, Patterson was throwing and got three strikeouts out in two innings. “We still have a chance to get first place,” said Wertz, “because we haven’t started on the other side of the conference yet.” Pierce will end Western State Conference (WSC) Blue Division games on Tuesday against Bakersfield. WSC Gold Division games starts on March 11.
