Freshman right-hand pitcher Olivia Nunez (4-4) took to the mound on Wednesday as the Hornets starter for the second-straight game. Fullerton College lost.
The loss involved six costly errors and the Hornets were held at one run for the entire game for a final score of 8-1 Cypress College.
With three games left until the OEC tournament, the home game loss puts the Hornets in fourth place in the standings.
Taking the lead early in the second inning, Hornet freshman right fielder Ariana Gonzalez doubled, scoring freshman center fielder Bella Morales making the score 1-0.
Play remained competitive up until the fifth inning when a bunt that rolled very close to the foul line was called fair by the third base umpire. The call derailed the Hornets defense and allowed the Chargers to take control of the game.
“Sometimes there’s things that are not in our control. Umpires are one of them,” said co-head coach Crystal Aguirre.
Continuing into the fifth inning, the Hornets allowed five runs and four hits.
“It comes down to how we respond. We unraveled a little bit and we didn’t control that,” said Aguirre.
Fielding errors riddled the game in the second, fifth, and sixth innings for the Hornets, including those by Nunez and sophomore first baseman Alyssa Haro, which allowed the Chargers to get a player on base.
In the fifth inning, the Chargers scored two unearned runs on two Hornets errors on a lined-out bunt and in the sixth, the Hornets cost themselves two more runs, earned and unearned.
The Chargers continued hitting and scoring runs, finishing the inning with four hits and two runs, taking the lead to 8-1. Cypress ended the game with 13 total hits more than double the hits that Fullerton had.
After two pitching changes by the Hornets, Nunez was replaced by freshman utility player Taylor Lannon, and then Emily Flores a freshman right-hand pitcher closed out the final inning.
“It came down to defense. We weren’t making the routine plays. The pitchers weren’t doing their jobs. We weren’t grabbing the ground balls,” said Aguirre about the team’s performance during the game, “We can’t have balls going in between legs.”
Fullerton College (17-18-1, 10-8) plays again on April 15 at Orange Coast College (16-17, 8-10) at 2:00 p.m.
