The offensive force of College of the Canyons crushed the Ventura College Lady Pirates last Monday losing 12-3.

Edna Gutierrez, who was 2 for 4 with an RBI single, led the Lady Pirates offensively. The Cougars had help from Lisa Luettinger, who had a triple and 2 RBIs, and Ashley Zimmerman went 3 for 5 in the game, including an inside-the-park home run at the start of the first inning.

The Lady Pirates were unable to come up with any big defensive plays in the game to stop the Cougars onslaught.

“We have a really young squad right now,” said Oxnard’s assistant coach, Sonia Ford. “Right now, we don’t have that spark to help this team step up.”

The Lady Pirates tried to come back when they scored two runs in the fifth inning and Gutierrez had an RBI single to bring in Wendy Garcia. Later in the inning, Sasha Gomez had an RBI single to bring in Esperanza Reyes, which trimmed the score to 7-3. The Cougars were able to answer back in the sixth inning, scoring three runs of their own and making the game unreachable for the Lady Pirates.

On an attempt to get an out, Cougars first baseman Rachel Ross was hit by the ball from a fellow teammates’ throw in the bottom of the fourth inning. After a couple of minutes on the ground she was able to resume playing the game. She was even able to help the Cougars offensively by contributing a triple in the beginning of the fifth inning, and later contributed a run.

The Lady Pirates’ problems seemed to have started when Christen Guzman replaced their starting pitcher, Amanda Basquez, in the middle of the second inning. When the substitution occurred, the score was already 5-0. Even though the Lady Pirates tried to catch up to the Cougars, their defense and pitching could not come through.

“We tried to start the game off right but we were unable to,” said Ford. “From the beginning of the game, they (Cougars) were able to build a momentum and we were playing catch up the whole time.”