Softball Caps Regular Season with Eighteenth Straight Win

El Camino College wrapped up the 2019 regular season with a 7-3 comeback victory over Cerritos in a South Coast Conference tilt Tuesday afternoon at Nancy Kelly Field.

The Warriors (34-6, 20-2) secured their 18th consecutive victory to conclude the regular season. It is the teams's longest winning streak since the Warriors won a program-record 23 straight games during the 2017 season. They finish the 2019 season with a 20-2 overall record, securing the team's third straight SCC, South Division title.

On Tuesday, the Warriors had to come from behind twice as they trailed 1-0 and 2-1 against the Falcons (19-19, 12-10), who finished second in the SCC, South, eight games back of ECC.

The Falcons scored in the bottom of the first against ECC starter Jocelyn Hernandez on a two-out, RBI double from Tena Spoolst, scoring Haley Davis and giving Cerritos the early lead.

It stayed that way until the third inning when Diamond Lewis blasted her fifth home run of the season, a solo shot to left field to tie things up at 1-1.

But the Falcons regained the advantage in the fifth inning as Deja Sendejas singled to center field to score Itzel Soto, who had advanced to third base on an error earlier in the frame.

In the sixth, the Warriors turned on the jets as they scored three times on two hits and two errors. Brooklyn Araujo was the catalyst in the inning as she hit a one-out RBI double to right to score Alena De La Torre to tie the game. Araujo advanced to third on an error and then stole home on a double steal with Belle Estrada, who would score on the same play thanks to a throwing error to give ECC a 4-2 lead.

The Warriors added some insurance in the seventh as Mina Nakawake hit an RBI single to score De La Torre and then Araujo hammered a two-run home run to left-center to make it 7-2.

Araujo finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI. Lewis finished the day 2-for-4 and Hernandez also tallied two hits while tossing another complete-game in the circle. She picked up her 15th victory of the season as she allowed three runs, two earned, on 11 hits. She walked one and struck out one.

The Warriors will now await their seeding announcement for the upcoming California Community College Athletics Association Southern California Regional Softball Playoffs, which are set to begin on Friday, May 3.