Long Beach City College freshman Cassie Demers (Mary Star of the Sea HS) smacked a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the fifth inning that proved to be the game-winner in a 3-1 non-conference win over visiting Los Angeles Valley College on Friday at LBCC.

With the win, Long Beach improved to 18-15 overall while LA Valley dropped to 8-20.

Sophomore Natalie Ayala (Torrance HS) picked up the victory in the circle for the Vikings as she improved to 13-9 this season. She scattered four hits and allowed one unearned run in the complete-game effort. Ayala struck out five and walked one.

LA Valley scored its lone run early in the first before the Vikings put together a two-out rally in the third inning to tie it. Freshman Rayleen Pallan (California HS) drew a lead-off walk and moved to second on a wild pitch from LA Valley starter Daisy Cacho. With two outs, freshman Amanda Sandoval (North Torrance HS) lined a double to the wall in centerfield to drive in Pallan.

Pallan once again sparked the Vikings' go-ahead rally in the fifth with a lead-off single. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Melissa Yepez (Paramount HS) before freshman Mary Gonzales (Banning HS) popped out for the second out of the frame.

Cacho then got wild, issuing consecutive walks to Sandoval and sophomore Victoria Padilla (Paramount HS). Demers then came up and lined a base hit up the middle to drive in both runs. Cacho took the loss for LA Valley, allowing three runs and seven hits over seven innings.   

Pallan went 3 for 3 and scored a pair of runs while Demers was 2 for 2 with 2 RBI to lead the LBCC offense.

Long Beach returns to South Coast Conference action on Tuesday (Apr 8) when it travels to rival Cerritos College for a 3 p.m. game.