There were ups and downs Thursday as Pierce College faced off against Santa Barbara City College and lost an away double-header, 7-1 and 3-0, respectively.
Pierce scored its only run in the first inning of the first game of the double-header on an RBI single by Susanna Suard. Then, the Brahmas essentially suffered a thirteen inning shut-out.
By the fourth inning of game one it was Santa Barbara 4-1, with Pierce scoring mostly errors, according to Dave Loveton, SBCC sports information specialist who attended the game.
“Santa Barbara is a good squad. They won the conference last year, so we knew we had our hands full,” Pat Grennan, head coach for Pierce College softball said.
Katlyn Vogler was the Brahmas only pitcher and threw an incredible 200 pitches with nearly six out of 10 pitches being strikes across both games.
“[Vogler] pitched her heart out,” Grennan said.
SBCC pitcher Alexandra Abbott by comparison threw fifty percent more pitches than Vogler, but was less accurate, putting eight batters on base.
“[Abbott] had a good change up but she was a little wild, but we weren’t connecting,” Grennan said.
In the top of the sixth inning in game two, Abbott created an opportunity by throwing two wild pitches allowing Cindy Martin and Edline Villa to advance. Both runners were left on base on a strikeout which ended the inning and put the kibosh on Pierce’s hopes for victory in the second game.
“It’s getting the key hits,” Grennan said. “In the seventh inning we had bases loaded on three walks. All we needed was a base hit and we would’ve been right back in it.”
The next double-header is a home game for Pierce against Barstow Tuesday at 1 p.m. Barstow is 1-8 when on the road this season.
“We have a good chance of winning both of those games,” Grennan said. “But, you know, we’re not going to beat them up.”
