SMC Women's Softball Fall Short Against Allan Hancock College

Talia Hunter #6 freshman pitcher for the Corsair softball team, SMC lost 14-0 to Allen Hancock College. The Corsair's record is now 1-15 for the 2019-2020 season. The game was held at John Adams Middle School, in Santa Monica, California. March 5, 2020. (Fernando Duran / The Corsair)

Santa Monica College’s (SMC) women’s softball team loses against Allan Hancock College (AHC), with the score of (14-0) on March 5. Moving SMC’s record to (1-15) on the season.

The tempo was set early in the game for SMC when they allowed AHC to score five-runs within the first two innings. 

This early deficit (5-0) for SMC played against their strength as a team, which is to get an early lead and hold their opponent at bay for as long as they can. The early struggles that the Corsairs faced on the defensive end began with Freshman pitcher, Talia Hunter, 6, who was unable to get in a groove and make consecutive strikeouts.

As a result, Allan Hancock College was able to expose SMC’s infield, who continued to let balls get past them. This was due to the Corsairs ineffective defensive positioning and AHC’s ability to attack the defensive gaps that SMC provided.

The Corsairs dug themselves in an early hole due to their constant infield and outfield errors. Throughout the five innings, the Corsairs committed six errors, where AHC was able to score on four of those errors. 

SMC’s inability to adjust and clean-up their mistakes led to AHC opening-up the flood-gates and scoring eight-runs in the top of the fourth-inning alone. This extended SMC’s deficit to (13-0) at the end of the inning. 

In the bottom of the fourth, SMC sparked some life back into the game when they were able to get the bases loaded with only one-out in the inning. However, the next at-bat resulted in a pop-fly, which led to their second out in the inning. 

Now, with SMC’s last chance to stay within reach of this game, Sophomore, Chica Sanchez, 17, was at-bat. She was caught looking at the first two strikes, and the inning ended with her swinging at a curve-ball thrown by AHC’s Sophomore pitcher, Alexis Porter, 9. 

In the fifth-inning, the Corsairs were unable to get anything going and gave up another score to AHC, which brought the score to (14-0).

At the end of regulation, the Corsairs lost (14-0), and moved their record to (1-15) on the season.