The Citrus College Owls defeated the Barstow College Vikings 7-1 on April 25 at the Owl’s Nest.
The meeting between Barstow and Citrus was the second meeting between the teams since 2007. Citrus won the first game against Barstow 7-4.
Sophomore pitcher Aaron Bernal was happy about helping his team get out of a four-game skid.
“It feels good,” Bernal said, “We just go out, try to play the same game every time. Sometimes we fall a little bit short, but today the bats came out, the defense played well and it feels good to get a win again.”
Barstow scored their only run of the game in the fifth inning after freshman Mitch Hulse hit a single to bring in sophomore Kalyn Kimmel to tie the game, 1-1.
Citrus continued scoring runs. Vikings coach Bryan King talked about the lack of runs.
“We couldn’t get a big knock when we needed it,” King said. “And Citrus didn’t make any mistakes, that’s how it goes sometimes.”
Citrus scored at least one run in the fifth through eighth inning and the Vikings were unable to make a comeback from Citrus’ 7-1 lead.
In the eighth inning, sophomore Hiroshi Ishiwatari hit a single to bring in Achay and sophomore Marcos Campos hit a double to bring in Ishiwatari.
The Vikings had five hits and two errors while the Owls had 13 hits and two errors.
Citrus head coach Steve Gomez was happy with Bernal’s performance.
“He threw a lot of strikes, that’s definitely helpful, and he changed speeds very well,” Gomez said.
The Owls will play their final games of the season against Barstow at 2:30 p.m. on April 27 at Barstow College and then April 28 back at the Owl’s Nest.
