SMC softball faces trouble in double header

The Santa Monica College Corsairs' softball team dropped both ends of an afternoon double header against the LA Mission College Eagles, 12-10 and 22-6 on Tuesday. In the first game, the Corsairs fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning after a string of errors that allowed LA Mission runners to reach base.

The Corsairs weren't going to go down without a fight though. Entering the bottom of the third inning a string of hits, walks, and a few defensive errors by LA Mission enabled SMC to take an 8-3 lead over the Eagles.

The lead for the Corsairs was short-lived. The LA Mission Eagles soared back into the lead with a one out rally that was capped off by a monster grand slam to left field that pushed the Eagles to a 9-8 lead over the Corsairs.

The Corsairs were able to regain the lead in the bottom of the fifth when freshman infielder, Chelsea Leif, drove in two of her four RBIs in the game to give the Corsairs 10 runs to LA Mission's 9.

However, the Corsairs showed one of their several character flaws by coughing up the lead again immediately after going ahead themselves.

The Eagles scored 3 runs in the top of the sixth inning which proved to be enough to hold off SMC and give the Corsairs their twentieth loss of the season.

After blowing two leads in game one of the back to back double header with LA Mission, the Corsairs looked like a defeated team when they stepped back on the field for game two.

Mission came into game two with their bats warmed up and started to pile up runs early.

Before the Corsairs even came up to bat, they were trailing by 6 runs. By the end of the second inning, the Corsairs trailed 7-1 which would be the closest SMC would be all evening.

The Corsairs were able to register 6 runs in total by the end of game two; however, the mercy rule had to be brought into effect to call the game at the end of the fifth inning.

After the double header, coach Daniel Ross said, "the girls gave up in game two, we could compete with them [LA Mission] as shown in game one, but once we got ahead we started to make mistakes and handed them the game when we should have won."

The SMC Corsairs women's softball team will look to bounce back and end their losing streak which has now reached 10 straight losses.

The Corsairs will visit College of the Canyons on Thursday.