Marker pitches Hornets past first round

   Lady Hornet's catcher Jordyn Bohon came up to bat with the season on the line in the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs and two runners in scoring position in a winner take-all Game 3 of a best-of-three series against Citrus College.

   "Just put the ball in play and give us a chance," said Head Coach Lisa Bassi of Bohon's at-bat.

    Pressure situation? No problem for Bohon who hit a walk-off single to shallow center field driving in Chelsie Schaal from third base and giving the Lady Hornets a 4-3 victory over the Owls (24-18, 14-4) and more importantly keeping the season alive.

   "I just walked up there, calm, not really thinking about it. I just wanted to get it done anyway I could," Bohon said. "I like changeups and she [Destinee Quinn] threw me a changeup first pitch, so I took it."

    Bohon finished the day 1-for-5 but checked in with a clutch RBI single against Owls pitcher Destinee Quinn, who had pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief for starter Kimberly Lopez.

    Quinn and Lopez combined, turned in a solid 8 2/3 innings of work in the circle, but could not match the performance that the Lady Hornets got from Kelsey Marker. She earned her biggest victory this season yielding eight scattered hits and three runs, one earned improving to 16-7 overall.

   "I came out confident like I did in the first two games," Marker said. "I wanted it more than anything and I wasn't going to let them beat us on our home field."

   Marker showed how bad she wanted beat the Owls. Marker pitched all 23 innings for the Hornets allowing 14 hits, 4 runs, two earned and four strikeouts on her way to a 2-1 record. The loss in the opening game of the series was the result of an unearned run. 

   "She came out and pitched like she always does, she hit her spots and came through when we needed her," Bohon said. 

   "Unbelievable! In the top of the 9th inning I asked her how she was feeling, she said she was fine and could go six more outs," Schaal said. "It was crazy, she was rock solid today. I have played with her for two years and this is her best performance."

   The Owl's Quinn did a good job in the circle in relief of Kimberly. Quinn took the loss for the Owls. 

   In Game 2 of the series, Marker and Lopez both turned in complete game efforts for their teams. It was Marker who walked away victorious, three-hitting the Owls to a complete game shutout. The Owls had their best opportunity to get something stirring against Marker in the 1st inning when Annette Diaz opened up the game with a bloop single over the head of shortstop Diana Payan. 

   Diaz advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and then moved over to third on a Rebbeca Lopez groundout to third base.  Marker got Amana Herre to fly out to left field, getting herself out of her only jam of the game.

   In the Hornet half of the 1st inning, Lopez retired Schaal and Nycole Ortega with ease. Jackie Munoz came up to bat with two outs and crushed a Lopez fast ball deep to left-center field for a home run, giving the Hornets a 1-0 lead. That one run was the only support Marker would need the entire game. 

   "I was so happy, I was running out there with a lot of excitement," Marker said after watching Munoz hit the home run. "I had it in my head that they were not going to score and it let me relax when I had runs behind me, I knew that my team could hit for me. "

   Munoz finished the second game of the series 1-for-2 with one home run and drove in two of the three runs for the Lady Hornets.

   "I had two balls and two strikes on me, I wasn't going to let the pitcher get one by me, I swung hard and got it," said Munoz of her 1st inning home run. "That was probably the hardest ball I have ever hit."

   The Hornets (26-13, 13-8) will advance to the Southern California Regionals where they will travel to Cerritos to take on the top seeded Falcons (38-4, 17-1) this weekend. 

   "We have to put the ball in play and make some things happen so that we can score some runs," Bassi said. "We have good pitching, we have great defense, we have to get on base and manufacture runs. We can move them [runners] over, we can steal, we can do a lot of things and we are aggressive. We can make those things happen, but we have to get on base first."