Softball: No. 20 Long Beach drops 5-1 SCC game to No. 18 Cerritos

The No. 20 state-ranked Long Beach City College softball team suffered a 5-1 South Coast Conference loss to visiting No. 18 Cerritos College on Thursday at LBCC. The loss dropped Long Beach to 10-5-1 overall and 3-3 in the SCC.

The Vikings' bats once again went cold. Long Beach totaled four hits off Cerritos starting pitcher Jessica Lozano, just two days after being shutout with five hits on Tuesday against East Los Angeles.

Sophomore right fielder Brittney Holden (Big Bear HS) provided the only spark for Long Beach, as she smashed a solo homerun over the right-center field fence in the bottom of the fifth inning to break up Lozano's bid at a shutout.

Cerritos opened the game with a run in the top of the first off LBCC starter Justine Meddings (Kennedy HS) after Jessica Roper drove in Natalie Garcia with a sacrifice fly.

The Falcons added two more runs in the third. Briana Quintana laced a two-run double down the left-field line that brought in Garcia and Stephanie Aguirre.

Cerritos closed their scoring with two more runs off freshman reliever Samantha Goerlitz (Lakewood HS) in the fifth. Courtney Priddie and Shawnee Kirk both had RBI singles to give the Falcons a commanding 5-0 advantage.

Meddings (5-1) allowed three runs (two earned) and three hits to pick up her first loss of the season. Goerlitz gave up two runs and three hits during the fifth, and freshman Angela Arias (Western HS) closed out the game with two scoreless innings.  

Lozano improved to 10-3 for Cerritos in the complete-game effort. She allowed one run and four hits while striking out eight. Quintana was 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI to lead Cerritos (11-5, 6-0 SCC) at the plate.

Long Beach returns to action on Saturday (Mar 5) when it hosts Citrus College in a non-conference game set to begin at 11 a.m.