The Pima College softball team swept a doubleheader with Scottsdale Community College on Saturday winning 8-5 in the first game and 5-4 in the second at the Pima West softball field.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Pima coach Rebekah Quiroz said. “I’m not happy with the way we played, but at the end of the day a win is a win and we’re growing in these little things.”
The Aztecs (2-4) took an early 4-0 lead in the first inning of the second game but would fail to score again until the seventh inning.
Infielder Shannon Vivoda (Pueblo grad) got the Aztecs scoring run started with an RBI double into the left field.
Infielder Cerrina Barajas (Tucson) hit an RBI single to score the next run in.
Catcher Kelli Samorano (Tucson) hit another RBI single into right field to continue the first inning hitting streak.
Outfielder Aliza Rodriguez brought in the final run with an RBI single ground ball that snuck just past third base.
Both teams wouldn’t score for the second and third innings. Scottsdale’s closest opportunity came in the third when they had the bases loaded with two outs.
The Aztecs fielded a ground ball by a Scottsdale batter and tagged the runner out at third base to get out of the jam.
Scottsdale scored their first run of the second game in the fourth inning. Two Artichoke batters hit doubles consecutively to drive in a run.
A pitching change was then implemented following an error made by Lia Dominguez (Cienega.
Teresa Garza (Benson) got the next two batters out via a line drive caught at second base and a strike out to escape the inning.
Scottsdale scored two more runs in the fifth inning to shorten Pima’s lead to 4-3. Faith Orton (Amphi) came in to relieve for the rest of the second game.
Scottsdale found themselves in another two-out situation in the sixth inning when the next batter hit a single to put herself into play.
The next batter hit what would have been an easy fly ball out, but it was dropped and allowed the runner to get to first base and the other to score the tying run at 4 apiece.
The Aztecs would score in the same inning. Samorano hit a fly ball deep into center field for a double. Samorano reached third base after infielder Desiree Martinez hit a sac fly.
Rodriguez hit another sac fly to bring Samorano home for the final run of the game.
With one out to go, Orton had one final pitch to throw to solidify the sweep for Pima. Orton locked in and threw a pitch down the middle for the final strike out of the game.
“Our pitchers help us out a lot,” Samorano said. ”They do their job and we have to do our job on defense as well. The pitcher’s energy, we feed off of that a lot and they help us get through the inning.”
Orton had seven strikeouts in the last three innings of the game and gave up only one run that was unearned.
Samorano went 2 for 3 at the plate with an RBI. Vivoda and Barajas went 1 for 3 with an RBI.
Pima returns to the West Campus softball field on Tuesday. They will play Mesa Community College in a conference double header. The first game will be at 1 p.m.
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