San Diego City College celebrated Women’s History Month with the Knights’ women’s tennis and softball teams both in action on Tuesday, March 18.
Roughly 200 City College community attendees were given black and pink commemorative jerseys and were treated to lunch just beyond center field at Beck Hock Field.
City’s mental health department was also in attendance and reminded fans of future events and resources they provide.
The following passages recap each of the days events.
City College Tennis falls 6-3 to Mt. San Antonio
The Knights’ women’s tennis team (10-3, 5-0 PCAC) saw its eight-match winning streak end on Tuesday against a strong Mt. San Antonio team (10-2), whose only losses came to NAIA school Hope University and Division 3 Occidental College.
City came into play ranked number four in the CCCAA Southern California Team Rankings, while Mt. San Antonio was ranked fifth.
The Knights won all of their previous eight matches in dominating fashion, sweeping each opponent 9-0.
Head coach Jami Yonekura-Jones applauded her team’s effort against Mt. San Antonio, despite the loss.
“They have a tough team,” Yonkura-Jones said. “I thought we did well on the lower lines, and I think there’s stuff we can work on, but they were very strong today.”
After a 9-10 finish last season, the Knights have already topped that win total, with four games remaining in regular season play.
Yonekura-Jones attributed her team’s turnaround to their depth, enthusiasm and comradery her team shows off the court. She also highlighted freshman Angie Palmerin’s performance throughout the season, which has earned her line one honors, playing against her opponent’s top player.
Despite the vast improvement from last year, Yonekura-Jones still sees room for improvement with her team.
“We’re going to keep working on the doubles matches, and maybe just a little bit more on the aggressive side,” she said. “I think we are good on the consistency side, but we need to kind of step it up.”
The Knights play their last home match on Thursday, March 20 at 2 p.m. against Mt. San Jacinto before playing their final three regular season matches on the road.
San Diego City softball drops third straight game
It was a festive afternoon with food and giveaways for fans as the City College softball team (9-12, 0-4 PCAC) battled cross-town rivals Mesa College (12-11, 3-1 PCAC) in their second meeting of the season at Beck Hock Field at City College
Mesa has had City’s number this season, first winning at home on Thursday, Feb. 27, 11-0 and again besting the Knights, 8-3 on Wednesday, March 19.
Mesa got off to a hot start scoring in the first inning off an error by City and scored two in the second off another error by the City infield.
Despite the rough start, City would respond with a triple by Cali De La Rosa in the bottom of the second, scoring two runs, closing the Mesa lead 3-2.
Head Coach AJ Hull was impressed by the fight his team showed and their ability to “stay in the fight.”
“We gave them a couple of runs early and as the game went on they added on and that hurt us,” Hull said. “You take some of those unearned runs away and it’s a much closer game.”
Lack of hitting magnified the City defensive woes as Mesa piled on the runs, out hitting the Knights 14-5. Mesa pitcher Olivia Anderson had 13 strike-outs on five hits, giving up three City runs.
Hadley Phipps pitched six innings, giving up 13 hits, 8 runs, 3 errors and had 3 strikeouts.
“We just have to get better and not give them opportunities,” Hull said. “Once we do that we’ll start seeing more success. We’ll come together and talk about this one and get ready to re-attack.”
The San Diego City softball team will look to notch their first conference win at Imperial Valley on Thursday, March 20, at 3 p.m.
