No. 5 Warriors Edged by No. 7 Long Beach

TORRANCE, Calif. --- El Camino College suffered a 3-1 South Coast Conference loss to No. 7 Long Beach on Tuesday afternoon at the ECC Softball Field.

With the loss, the Warriors are locked into second place in the SCC with a 19-4 conference record while the Vikings clinched the conference title outright with the win, concluding SCC play with a 22-2 conference record.

It was a battle for first place in the SCC and it lived up to the billing as neither team could gain much separation from the other throughout the game. The Warriors had a chance to aim for a share of the conference title with a win on Tuesday and they were almost there as a Cheyenne Navarro inside-the-park home run in the third gave ECC a 1-0 lead.

Pitcher Lexi Ramirez held onto that lead through five innings despite a couple of threats mounted by the Vikings.

In the sixth, the visitors broke through with a leadoff double and then a sacrifice to move the tying run to third base. Jaela Ruiz then hit a double to right-center to tie the game at 1-1.

The Vikings then took the lead in the seventh thanks to a pair of singles to lead off the frame. With the bases loaded and one out, Mikaela Pacheco singled to right-center to bring in two runs and put the Vikings ahead for the first time, 3-1. Ramirez limited the damage by getting the next two outs to end the frame.

In their half of the seventh, the Warriors got a two-out walk from Anahi Pintado to keep the team's conference title hopes alive and then an infield single by Jackie Ordonez and a throwing error by LBCC put runners on second and third.

Savanna Kastigar stepped up with a chance to tie the game with a hit but Long Beach's ace Hailey Harris got the best of Kastigar, getting a swinging strike out to end the game.

The Warriors will wrap up their regular season on Wednesday with a road game at Compton. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m.