The Long Beach City College softball team split a pair of non-conference games against San Diego County opponents, picking up a 7-3 win over San Diego Mesa College while falling to Palomar College 4-0 to close out the 2012 regular-season schedule on Wednesday at home.
With a 20-20 overall record, the Vikings will have to wait to see if they receive an at-large bid into the Southern California Regional Playoffs. The playoff pairings will be announced Saturday at the Southern California postseason coaches meeting at Mt. San Jacinto College.
On Wednesday, the Vikings closed their afternoon with a much-needed win over Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champion San Diego Mesa. LBCC put together a three-run, two-out rally in bottom of the first inning and never looked back. Freshman Melyssa Rivas (Santa Fe HS) delivered a RBI double and sophomore Cassie Garcia (Banning HS) and freshman Shanise Compton (North Torrance HS) both hit run-scoring singles to give the Vikings an early 3-0 lead.
Sophomore Danielle Hannan (El Segundo HS, pictured) drove in freshman Reanna Guzman (Artesia HS) with a double in the second inning to put LBCC up 4-1.
San Diego Mesa (27-8) took advantage of a two-out error in the top of the fourth to score a pair of unearned runs off LBCC freshman Frances Campoy (Santa Fe HS) to get within one run at 4-3, but Long Beach put the game out of reach with three more runs in the sixth.
Campoy went the distance in the win over the Olympians, allowing six hits and three runs (one earned) with two strikeouts. Garcia went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI to lead the Vikings at the plate.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Vikings couldn't get anything going offensively against Palomar. Bree Burns held the Vikings hitless for six innings.
Freshman Liz Melendrez (Banning HS) finally broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the seventh. Long Beach had runners on second and first with one out, but couldn't put together a late rally.
Campoy pitched well in loss against Palomar, allowing three unearned runs and seven hits over six innings.
For Palomar (20-12), Burns struck out five in the complete-game one-hitter. Brenna Parker went 3 for 4 with a homerun and 3 RBI to lead the Comets' offense.
Photo by Chris Ruiz
