By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

No. 20 College of the Canyons softball closed out the regular season in winning fashion on Tuesday, April 26 posting a 10-4 conference win over Antelope Valley College at Whitten Field to clinch a postseason berth for a ninth straight season.

Canyons pounded out 14 hits and swiped five bases to get past the Marauders, plating four runs in the second and two more in both the fifth and sixth innings.

That was more than enough for COC starter Samantha Flores (11-10) who earned the win with seven full innings of work. She allowed four runs, two earned, on five hits and six walks. The Cougars also committed four errors in the game. Flores has now won her last four starts while going the distance in all of them.

Ashlynn Heck collected three hits in the game and also scored three runs. Her RBI-double in the second inning scored Lisa Motz and Alyssa Silva to give Canyons a 4-0 advantage. Heck later came around to score on an infield error by the Marauders to put things at 5-0.

AVC came away with three runs in the third highlighted by a two-run home run from Savannah Cervantes. Later, it was Trinity Holman with a solo shot in the fourth to get the Marauders within a run at 5-4.

Allyson Melgar’s base knock in the fourth inning gave the Cougars a bit of breathing room at 6-4. From there, Sabrina Englebrecht, Memorie Muñoz, Heck and Julia Fuentes took turns recording RBI-singles until Canyons was comfortably ahead by the 10-4 final score.

Canyons (24-15-1, 8-4) finishes the regular season as runner-up in the Western State Conference, East Division after winning five of its final six games down the stretch. Including in that run was a doubleheader split with No. 4 Palomar College over the weekend. The Cougars are also the No. 20 ranked team in the state according to the most recent California Community College Fastpitch Coaches Association poll released April 20.

Top Performers

Ashlynn Heck — 3-for-4, 2B, SB, 3 R, 3 RBI

Allyson Melgar — 2-for-4, SB, 2 RBI

Lisa Motz — 2-for-4, SB, 3 R

Julia Fuentes — 2-for-4, RBI

Sabrina Englebrecht — 2-for-4, R, RBI

Samantha Flores — W, 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 K

Upcoming Schedule

The Cougars and Antelope Valley (27-13, 8-4) both ended the year with identical conference marks, however COC will retain the second-place spot by virtue of its strength of schedule. Of the Cougars 15 losses this season, 11 came against programs currently ranked in the state’s Top 20. Bakersfield College (34-6, 12-0) won the Western State Conference, East title.

COC has advanced to the postseason every year dating back to 2012. The California Community College Athletic Association did not host a postseason in 2020 or 2021 due to cancellations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canyons head coach John Wissmath and the Cougars will now await their postseason seeding with brackets expected to be set over the weekend.

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube or visit COC Athletics.