COMMUNITY COLLEGE STATE SOFTBALL : Cypress Hangs On, Needs 2 Victories Today for Title

Cypress staved off elimination in the State softball tournament by defeating Long Beach City, 5-2, in a losers’ bracket game Saturday at the Sacramento Sports Complex.

Stephanie Hill had three hits and two runs scored, and pitchers Cindy Hover and Leigh Sager combined to allow only two hits and no earned runs for the Chargers (39-13), the defending State champions. Long Beach City finishes 40-14.

Cypress plays Palomar--a 3-0 loser to Sacramento City in the winners’ bracket Saturday--at 11 a.m. today.

Sacramento City plays the Cypress-Palomar winner for the State championship at 1 p.m.

In earlier losers’ bracket games:

Cypress 3, Napa Valley 0--Chrystal Youngberg and Jennifer Johnson singled home runs to support Sager’s five-hit pitching. Cypress broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning on Youngberg’s hit after loading the bases on two walks and an error. The Chargers added two runs in the fifth, one scoring on Johnson’s two-out single and the other on a wild pitch.

Sager struck out four, walked none and picked off two runners.

Long Beach City 3, Orange Coast 1--Sam Lutsch hit a first-inning double to drive in Becky Toler from second base to give the Pirates (34-11) a 1-0 lead. After tying the game in the third, Long Beach City scored two runs in the top of the seventh to eliminate OCC.

Cypress 7, San Mateo 1--Priscilla Sarmiento drove in three runs with a two-run home run in the third and a run-scoring single in the fourth.

Carrie Frederick had a pair of doubles and Dena Villasenor (15-3) pitched the first five innings for the victory.