Owls Even Series with Renegades

Citrus College struck first and held on for a 5-4 victory over Bakersfield College to level the series.

The Owls improve to 15-16 on the year and 8-6 in Western State Conference action. The Renegades drop to 8-23 overall, 3-11 in conference.

Nicholas Santiago led the top of the second with a double to left before Robert Moreno and Matthew Espinoza joined him on base, each walking aboard with two outs. Devon Diaz blasted a base hit up the middle, scoring two to put the Owls on the board first.

Citrus tacked on another run in the third after Roman Robles scored on a wild pitch.

Bakersfield answered back in the top of the seventh, plating two runs to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Robert Valdivia came up big in the bottom half of the frame, however, knocking a two-run homer to put the Owls back up by three runs.

The Renegades scored twice in the eighth, trying to rally, but the Owls shut it down.  

Ryan Luiz Harney struck out six batters to pick up the win, while Kaj James earned the save after retiring the final two batters of the game.

Citrus heads back to Bakersfield to close out the series at 2:30 p.m.