Owls pitcher Makaele Moore in her pitching delivery during her second consecutive start in the same day. The Owls won both games vs. the Antelope Valley College Marauders on March 22, 2016. (Stephen Im/Clarion)
Owls pitcher Makaele Moore walked away from the Owls nest adding two wins to her win-loss record after back to back complete game performances.
The Citrus College Owls (7-13, 4-2) claimed two home wins and leap-frogged over the Antelope Valley College Marauders (10-12, 3-3) in the conference standings.
The Owls kept their opponents at bay all afternoon having only trailed once in both games.
The two teams matched up for their only meetings of the season at Citrus with the third game scheduled mid-April at AVC.
In game one of the afternoon, Owls catcher Celine Spathias went two for three including a three-run blast in the bottom of the third in game one to give Citrus the lead 3-1.
The Owls never looked back by adding one run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings respectively.
Antelope Valley College had been red-hot heading into Tuesday’s match-ups including winning four of their last five as well as a three-game conference win streak. The Marauders couldn’t get anything going offensively.
“I was hoping we would hit the ball a little better today,” said AVC Head Coach Cindy Vargas. “It’s tough to win games when you give up that many walks,” added Vargas.
The Marauders struggled with control in game one allowing seven base on balls to Owl batters as they dropped game one to the Owls 6-3.
Game two of the doubleheader saw the Owls jump to an early lead by scoring five runs in the first three innings.
Owls shortstop Nikki Soto took a first pitch fastball over the center field wall for a 2-run homer giving Citrus a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second.
“I’ve been hitting it up the middle with line drives but finally to have it go over the fence feels good,” said Soto.
Adding to her stellar pitching performance, Makaele Moore also went two for three in game two with an RBI single in the bottom of the third.
“She’s a beast,” said Citrus Head Coach Jackie Boxley about Moore. “To throw fourteen innings is tough to do. She pitched well from the beginning of the first game to the last inning of the second game”.
Moore’s 14 total innings were her best starts of this year’s conference season. She surrendered a total of four earned runs while striking out 10 and allowing no walks.
“My team really had my back on the field both offensively and defensively today and it felt really good,” said Makaele Moore. “I hadn’t gone back to back like that in a couple of years”.
The Owls took game two of the afternoon, completing the mini-sweep of the Marauders, by the score of 6-2.
The Owls will play host to conference, and win-less, Glendale College (3-13-2, 0-5-1) on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the Owls Nest while the Marauders will host LA Mission.
