By Wes McCurtis
CYPRESS, CA- The Cypress College softball team (11-0, 5-0 OEC) continued their tear through the Orange Empire Conference with a 9-1 victory over Riverside College (4-6, 2-2 OEC) in 6 innings on Wednesday. The Chargers entered the game ranked No. 3 in the California.
Vanessa Ledesma (4-0) notched her fourth win of the season for Cypress, allowing 1 run on 3 hits with 3 strikeouts in 5 innings of work. Sydney McCollum (2-for-2, 2RBI) and Alexis Zavala (2-for-3, HR) led the Cypress bats.
Riverside's Emily Wilcox (0-2) received the loss, allowing 6 runs, including 5 earned runs, on 6 hits.
The Chargers got on the board quickly with 4 runs in the first inning. With runners on second and third, McCollum sent Melanie Okazaki (2-for-3) home with an RBI single to center field. Jenny Vasquez (1-for-4, RBI) drilled an RBI single to left field to make it 2-0. Nicole Wise (3-for-4, RBI) scored McCollum with another RBI single before Vasquez would score on an error by the shortstop to take a 4-0 lead.
Cypress added 2 more runs in the second inning when McCollum drew a bases loaded walk, followed by a sacrifice fly from Destiny Vasquez (1-for-3, 2RBI), to give the Chargers a 6-0 lead. Riverside answered with their lone run of the game in the third inning as Simoriah Scharer (1-for-2, RBI) drove in a run with a hard hit double to right field. The Chargers added another run to their total in the fourth with an inside the park homerun by Zavala to take a 7-1 lead, before ending the game with 2 more runs in the sixth.
Softball will look to keep their 11-game unbeaten streak alive as they head to Citrus College for a double-header on Thursday, March 2. Games are scheduled for 3:00/5:00 p.m.
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