After a week-long rest, the Rio Hondo softball team dropped a non-conference game against Long Beach City College 11-4, and now have an overall record of 7-17.

The team last played on Mar 11 against Victor Valley in a dominating 12-2 win, but after the break, Head Coach Bianca Urquidi said that the team did not do much, making “no real changes” and used the time instead to recover.

As the game started LBCC took no time to get on the scoreboard when two errors made by Rio Hondo gave them an early 2-0 lead. The Lady Roadrunners however, scored two runs later in the inning tying the game.

From that point on, LBCC controlled the game with their offense, scoring a run in the third inning and two in the fourth before Rio Hondo got a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The score was 5-3 in favor of LBCC, as they continued to hold the lead. LBCC added another run to their tally, and another five runs at the top of the seventh, making the score 11-3.

Rio still had a chance at the bottom of the seventh inning to get back into the game with bases loaded, but would have to score a total of eight runs if they wanted to stay alive. Rio only managed to score one run in the bottom of the seventh, making the final score 11-4 for LBCC.

After the loss, Coach Urquidi mentioned that she liked how her team kept it close for a long time, but said that Long Beach had a “really fast team and speed has a tendency to cause havoc.”

While the team had strong wins this season, they haven’t come consistently and Coach Urquidi said her relatively young squad goes “through peaks and values, like roller coasters and once they get the hang of it, it has a tendency to stay.”

“We’re just starting to get into conference and when we get into conference, that’s when they need it. That’s when I need it to become consistent, so that’s why we play games like this, because games like this, we were in it for the majority of it and then the inconsistency flared its ugly head and that’s what happened,” Coach Urquidi said.

Rio Hondo will play against Victor Valley at home again tonight after a rainout ended the game prematurely. The Roadrunners will play San Bernardino Valley on March 23, which will end their four-game home stand and will finish off the week on the road in a doubleheader against College of the Desert on March 25.