Ventura College let the bats do the talking Thursday in a dominating fashion against Oxnard College, sweeping a double-header between the two teams.
VC opened up on a quick 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second, Clarissa Samaniego opened up VC’s Offensive juggernaut on a three-run triple, hit into deep left.
But the offense wasn’t the star of the first game, even with the first of two inside-the-park grand slams taking place deep into the sixth inning from Tiffany Gonzales.
Starting pitcher Teresa Lemos was on a roll, OC set them up and she knocked them down. Striking out six of the 22 batters she faced on the day, she pitched a one hitter in the first game.
VC’s head coach Susan Johnson accredited a piece of the victory to Lemos and her stellar pitching effort, who right now is posting a 0.91 era as a starting pitcher in her first year.
“You want someone who can go out there and not be troubled that someone’s on base or if someone’s going to hit you they’re going to hit you.” Said Johnson.
Lemos was humble about her effort on the day, making sure to give credit to the upstanding defense for VC.
“I don’t really get nervous, we have a good defense and we all work hard as a team,” said Lemos. “I know they make plays, I know I don’t have to get nervous when you have a team like that.”
VC closed out the first game on a well hit ball deep into left-field, Tiffany Gonzales, freshman infielder, had the bases loaded and with her coach telling her to hit the way she has the last week in practice, Gonzalez reared back and hit the hanging fast ball as hard as she could.
The result was a resounding wallop to the far left-field wall and as OC scrambled to get the ball that seemed to roll for an eternity, the bases cleared off for the uncanny inside-the-park grand slam.
VC grabbed the victory due to the mercy rule of eight when after the grand slam in the bottom of the sixth the final tally was 9-0.
“Grand-slam end of the game it felt good, it was my first grand slam and it felt good,” said Gonzales.” Were more positive we shake off the mistakes, pickup the runs and get the W.”
The second game of this double header had a little more of a balanced effort on OC’s end, but VC came through with another inside the park grand slam to seal the win 10-4.
OC came out in the top of the second ready to prove a point, Emily Valdez hit an RBI single to center field making the score 1-0 and showed signs of light for OC.
VC came right back on a RBI double by Katrina Gutierrez in the bottom of the second, OC fought back breaking the 1-1 score with a well hit RBI from Emily Valdez.
VC was all offense from there with their second grand slam of the afternoon coming from Raelene Moreno giving VC the 5-2 lead, directly after Teresa Lemos, star pitcher of the first game, got herself a triple off the first pitch thrown.
VC came out and dominated the afternoons events behind solid pitching and good defense, not to mention a few unprecedented grand slams, but OC as many chances as they had just couldn’t find the hits they were looking for.
“(Teresa Lemos) pitched an outstanding game and she deserved to win she pitched an astounding game. But we just couldn’t get the hits,” said Todd Prieto, assistant coach of OC. “We had that fourth inning in the second game where we hand one error and two mental errors and sometimes that’s all it takes.”
