The American River College softball team has been shut out in the past two games. Lack of consistency in the hitting rotation led to their loss against division rival Sacramento City College March 12.
The American River College women’s softball team (15-4) played host to arch rival Sacramento City College (14-2) on March 12. Despite a valiant effort the women fell to Sacramento City 3-0 and are currently 1-2 in the division.
American River is coming off only their fourth loss of the season after losing their last game a double header to rival San Joaquin Delta College.  The team was looking to start a new winning streak.
Today’s matchup featured the pitching of sophomore Karolanne Tipton for American River College, who was going up against freshman Ashten Welch.
Sacramento City started out the game with a leadoff base hit.  Tipton was able to force a pop out from the second batter; followed by the third batter in the rotation who got an infield single.  With runners on first and second Tipton would pitch the fourth batter in their lineup to a full count before throwing ball four leading to the bases being loaded.  No big deal for her though as she got the next batter to pop for an infield fly and an automatic out.  With two outs and the bases loaded Tipton focused in and struck out the final batter of the inning, shutting down the fast paced offense from Sacramento City.
With American River coming to the plate for the first time they were looking to get on the board early.  The Beavers could only manage to get one base hit in the inning by sophomore Brandi Williams. The inning ended with clean-up hitter Gigi Jimenez connecting with one, only to fly out to the fence in deep centerfield.
In the second inning Sacramento City would get their second batter on base and would move her all the way over to third on a check swing grounder to freshman Michelle Tarlandoukht at first base.  With two outs and a runner at third Tipton would get the next batter to pop out to freshman Sara Dodge at third base to end the inning.
Freshman Jackie Caramazza would lead off in the second inning drawing a four pitch walk.  Ashten Welch would throw three more balls in a row to make seven straight before striking out freshman Jordyn Bradley.  The next two American River batters would each ground out to end the inning.
After posting up goose eggs for the first two innings Sacramento City came into the third inning swinging scoring a solo home run of Tipton to take a 1-0 lead. Tipton finished the third inning without giving up any more runs.
The Beavers would get two runners on and would have runners at first and third with two outs before popping out to the shortstop to end the inning.
In the fourth inning American River would get runners on second and third with two outs.  Freshman Kaysea Lennard would take the pitcher to a full count before being struck out to end the threat.
The ladies didn’t get many chances to score but when they did get a chance they just couldn’t bring them home.  In fact the ladies only got one hit the final three innings of the game with Michelle Tarlandoukht doubling in the fifth inning.
In the fifth inning for Sacramento City Tipton would allow a runner to get on base via a four pitch walk.  With one out Tipton would pitch the next batter to a full count before striking her out.  The next batter would hit a two run homerun to centerfield.  Tipton would bounce back to strike out the next batter to end the inning.
Sacramento City would shut out the American River College offense that has been so powerful to start the season, winning the game 3-0.
Tipton would finish out the game striking out six batters giving up three runs, on seven hits with three walks.
The women play their next game a double header at Diablo Valley College on Thursday March 14 starting at noon.  Their next home game is Tuesday March 19 versus Santa Rosa Junior College at 3 p.m.