City College softball pitcher Calista Wendell led the Lady Vaqueros to a 4-0 victory against Orange Coast, the second game of a doubleheader at Pershing Park on Friday afternoon.
Wendell (No. 10) pitched the entire game and only gave up two hits with five strikeouts. She went into the fifth inning with a no hitter before giving up her first hit.
“The high energy in the dugout really helped me out,” said Wendell. “Having my defense back me up was really great for me.”
The defense backed its pitcher up by helping Wendell earn the shutout. The offense got going early and once the Vaqueros grabbed the lead they never looked back, despite battling cold and foggy conditions throughout the night.
The Vaqueros started off the first inning with three straight walks to load up the bases. Then left fielder Sloane Greeley (No. 22) hit a single to right field to score the first run of the game.
“I was just trying to stay calm and hit the ball up the middle or the other way,” Greeley said. “Singles do it.”
Sloane Greeley hits a line drive single to right field against Orange Coast College with the bases loaded to give the Vaqueros a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Friday, Feb. 9 at Pershing Park in Santa Barbara. “Singles do it,” Greeley said.
The next batter was catcher Janet Salas (No. 8) who drove in the next two runs with a single past the second baseman, giving the Vaqueros a 3-0 lead.
“Getting my hand through,” Salas said. “Driving my hands through the ball because I switched from the left side to the right side because I saw the pitching change.”
Salas is a switch hitter and finished the game going 2-2 and drew a walk at the plate. The Vaqueros scored their final run in the fourth inning on a base hit from second baseman Madison Foster (No. 3).
The Vaqueros had to wait an extra two hours before they were able to play their second game because the game before them went into extra innings. That didn’t slow the Vaqueros down as they started off the game with three quick outs and a 3-0 lead after the first inning.
“This game was really good.” Head Coach Justine Bosio said. “ We did a great job of coming out hard after having to wait so long to play.”
The Vaqueros had to overcome the time delay and the thick fog, which arrived before the start of game and was present all game.
The Vaqueros had a great bounce back game after dropping the first game of their doubleheader 8-4 to El Camino College.
“Whenever you have errors early in the game it allows you to be tense a little bit,” Bosio said. “So if we have a couple hits fall our way or a couple less errors I think the score ends up being a little different.”
With the win over Orange Coast the Vaqueros break a three game losing streak, improving to 4-3 on the season.
The Vaqueros next game is on Saturday, Feb. 10 at Chaffey College. They will play a doubleheader against Chaffey. The Vaqueros will not return to Pershing Park until Tuesday, Feb. 20 against LA Mission.
