It was one fine weekend for the City College softball team. They swept the best-of-three series against Hartnell College, of Chaffey, to open the first round of the Nor-Cal Regional Playoffs. City College ranked second in Northern California with a 43-4 overall record, while Hartnell ranked 15th with a 20-16 record.

City College and Hartnell couldn’t get anything started against the opposing pitchers during the opening innings of the first game (played on May 3). City College sophomore Amanda Monday and Hartnell freshman Nicole Grummons each retired the side for the first two innings. However, City College broke away in the bottom of the third, scoring seven runs on six hits.

“We had a little bit of a slow start but we came back and we started working together, and once one hit, the other one hit, so we just started off,” sophomore infielder Char Honciano said.

Monday finished out the game, pitching a one-hitter, with the final score being 8-0.

“We came out hitting and our defense was great. As long as we keep focus, and as long as everyone keeps doing what they’re doing we should go far [into the playoffs],” said Monday, who was the team MVP for the regular season.

The second game, played on May 4, got off to a late start because one of the umpires arrived late. However, City College kept the pace, and scored two runs in the bottom of the first, one off of a triple and one off of an error by Hartnell.

City College pulled away and never looked back during the bottom of the second inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, City College sophomore Cristin Anderson smacked a pitch from Hartnell’s Grummonds, into deep left center, reaching second and clearing the bases. City College went on to score once more in the inning, driving Anderson home and giving City a commanding 7-0 lead.

“I thought we did really good. I think we mostly pulled through as a team and finished up this last playoff game for this round. I think we all picked up each other at times we needed to and did good,” said Anderson. She eventually finished the game with 6 RBI’s off of two hits and two sacrifices.

Hartnell threatened in the top of the third when they loaded the bases off against City College’s Kelli Reynolds, a freshman starting pitcher. However, Reynolds got out of the inning allowing only two runs off of a double by Hartnell’s Michelle Gresham.

“This team has been together for two years now so they understand what they need to do in this situation, they brought their offense early in the game, put distance between the other team from us, and then played through the game,” said City College head coach Robert Maglione after the game.

The final score was 9-3, with City College advancing to the next round of the playoffs against Merced College.

“I know we’re definitely ready to go get them, and go to state, to get to this next round so we can go down to L.A. and win some more,” said Anderson.