A nail biting ending had the Mustangs full of hope from walking away with a victory in their final softball game of the season.

Wednesday afternoon, the Los Medanos College softball team played its final games in the 2019 Bay Valley Conference in a double-header against Mendocino College.

Coming into the game, LMC had a record of 5-5 in the BVC which placed them third in the standings trailing behind Mendocino college (9-5 record) and Solano College (14-0 record) respectively.  

Game two, in comparison to game one, was a game to watch with back and forth scoring from both LMC and Mendocino. Morgan Billeci took to the mound as the starting pitcher and in the first inning Billeci allowed a deep double from Mendocino to put them ahead 1-0.

The Mustangs would not answer back to Mendocino’s offense until the third inning. But by the time Mustangs had gotten on the board, Mendocino had extended their lead to 3-0. Those first runs began with a single up the middle from Shay Sinno, followed with a pop up single to left field, allowed the Mustangs to tie the game up 3-3.

After a quick top of the fourth inning from Billeci, the Mustangs offense exploded in run support for the starting pitcher scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Three out of the five runs came off the bat of one Hailey Vollbrecht who cleared the bases with a double.

“It felt pretty good to help out my team and get us ahead on the scoreboard,” said Vollbrecht. “I didn’t notice that I [scored that many runs] until I reached out the dugout.”

The next inning, a few timely hits and errors on LMC’s side allowed Mendocino to tie the game up once again. Billeci was subbed out during this inning and in came Shay Siino to get the Mustangs out of the sticky. Siino did get the job done, but the game tying runs cross the plate  were during her time on the mound.

The errors continued to follow the Mustangs as Mendocino gained a strong lead 12-8 in the 6th inning. The Mustangs tried to no avail to shorten that lead in the 6th.

By the top of the 7th, Mendocino threatened to put up more runs, but an incredible double play from Billeci in center field saved the day. A sliding effort to record the first out led to a runner tagging up from third base then Billeci gunned out the runner at home to end the top of the 7th.

The high stakes of softball began to show with a last minute comeback from the Mustangs after Mendocino began to walk runners in the bottom of the 7th. Vollbrecht, who earlier cleared the bases with a double, had the chance to do it all over again with the bases loaded on two outs.

She sadly was not be able to advance any runners with a pop out behind third base.

The Mustangs comeback falls short with the final score being 12-10. Tatmon believes the team played great and tried their hardest today.

Head coach Tim Rognlien recalls the tough season citing the rescheduling issues following the lost however he let his players know that he was “proud of them” and knew that they “played their hardest.”

For game one of the double header, LMC trailed 2-0 until the bottom of the 7th inning where an attempted comeback fell short. The final score from game one was Mendocino coming out victors 2-1.