The San Diego Mesa College Olympians were 7-7-1 heading into their game Wednesday against the 14-2 crosstown rival Palomar College Comets. A game that was intense in the early innings but eventually fell out of San Diego Mesa’s hands and finished with a score of 8-1 in favor of Palomar.

The San Diego Mesa Olympians were coming into the game hoping to turn things around after dropping their last game to Imperial valley 8-5, unfortunately, things did not go Mesa’s way this game either. Sophomore pitcher, Arianna Izaguirre got the nod to start against Palomar and strived through the first 3 innings holding her opponents scoreless and only giving up 2 hits in the process. Things took a turn after Arianna was able to get the first out of the inning, the next batter reached on an error for Palomar which then led to a walk being issued to the next batter, and then a pop-up which gave the Olympians 2 outs with runners on first and second. Izaguirre rocked back and delivered a pitch to the next batter hoping that it would result in an out, instead Palomar took that pitch and hit it right into the gap for a double allowing both runners to score. This then led to another single allowing the runner from 2^nd to score before Mesa Ultimately got the final out of the inning leaving the score at 3-0 heading into the bottom of the 4^th.

Palomar then began to get into a groove after Izaguirre was pulled and Aurial Yeager came into pitch. Palomar then proceeded to add 4 more runs in the 5^th inning and 1 more run in the top of the 7^th inning finishing the game with a score of 8-1., Palomar had freshman pitcher India Caldwell in the circle for the entirety of the game and it seemed that the San Diego Mesa Olympians could just not find their groove against this Palomar team which resulted in them only scoring one run off of a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 6^th inning. Mesa’s hitting showed promise even though they were only able to score 1 run, pitch selection seemed to be the weak point in every player’s approach to the plate, the defense of the Mesa Olympians was solid with their only being a couple of throwing errors throughout the game which is promising as well. The momentum was just taken away from the San Diego Mesa Olympians after all those runs had crossed the plate and you could tell that it was an emotional loss for the whole team.

Izaguirre had the chance to speak after the game and was asked if in that 4^th inning she was feeling fatigued or got into her own head mentally allowing for Palomar to score those first three runs, Izaguirre said, “No, I think I was throwing my game I was doing good, and you know good hitters are going to hit the ball. They had 2 good hits and I respect that from them, but I think I did the best I could to my ability.” With it being a toss loss Izaguirre had some insight into how she is going to pick her team up from this defeat, saying, “With my girls, I have to come a certain way I have to be as motivational as I possibly can, make sure that they know they are good. They sometimes forget that they are good when they know they are and that’s what messes us up sometimes.”

Head Coach Jaclyn Guidi also had the opportunity to speak and said, “This season’s focus is to make playoffs, especially this year because we had two years off due to COVID-19, it is not the same dynamic. It is not just the top two teams from the conference anymore it is the top 16 teams in the state so that is completely different. Usually, you just try to focus on your conference game, and it is easier to give your team a break, but this year is different, and I have made the hardest schedule in 18 years but to be the best you have to play the best.” Coach Guidi was understandably upset after Wednesday’s loss and shared some takeaways into where the team can improve, saying “We have a heavy freshman class, we have 24 freshmen, so we are trying to retrain their mentality. We have 2 players from our 2019 team that actually went to a playoff so they know the grind, the feeling, and know what has to happen. We also have 4 kids from our 2020 team and that season ultimately got canceled but I believe they have the drive to finish strong. Ultimately it is the focus level that has been our main factor this season.”