Cerritos Women's Softball Upsets Sacramento City in State Championships Opener
May 18 , 2007

Chino Hills, Calif. – Fourth seed Cerritos had the daunting task of facing the North’s top team in Sacramento City and came out on top to open the 2007 Softball State Championships despite being out hit. Sacramento City came into the game with just six losses on the season and Cerritos dealt them their seventh with a 2-0 shutout to advance to the second round. Falcons pitcher Jessica Navarro earned the shutout win with six strikeouts while allowing five hits and no runs. Cerritos produced just two hits but took advantage of two Panthers errors to score.

Cerritos went down in order in the first while Sac City threatened on their turn. Sophomore second baseman Nicole Wells led off with a single to right but the Panthers could not manage much more stranding a runner unable to score. The Falcons took their turn to threaten in the second with the bases loaded before Panthers pitcher Amanda Monday struck out the second out and forced a pop out to second to hold Cerritos.

Sac City led off with another single in the second from sophomore left fielder Breanna Canclini who reached third after a walk and a sac bunt. The Panthers would strand both runners in what would become a pattern in the game. The Falcon’s big inning came in the third. With one out retired, freshman catcher Nadine Garcia walked and then reached second after a throwing error on the next batter. With two outs down, freshman Vanezza Martin Del Campo doubled in the left center gap to score Garcia and take the 1-0 lead. Del Campo was not done, reaching third on a passed ball and then scoring on an error by the catcher for the 2-0 lead.

The Panthers continued their struggles with converting stranding another runner in the bottom of the third. Sac City would not put another runner on until the fifth with a single from freshman shortstop Cristin Anderson but she was caught stealing. The Cerritos offense stalled after the third as well going down in order the next four innings as Monday shut them down. Sac City had their last chance in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs retired, freshman pinch hitter Lorena Belmonte singled to left and the tying run was at bat. Navarro forced a foul out to first for the third out and ending the game with the shutout win.

Navarro improved to 30-5 on the season with the win. Monday fell to 20-4 striking out five batters and allowing no earned runs.

Sacramento City falls to 47-7 and moves to the loser’s bracket where they will face third seed Sierra. Sac City is 3-0 against the Wolverines this season. The two will meet up again in a do-or-die situation tomorrow at noon at Field One. Cerritos improves to 35-9-1 and moves on to the second round to face second seed Cypress. Cerritos defeated Cypress earlier this season 2-0. The two will face off again at 5:00 pm today.