The Fresno City College softball team split a doubleheader with San Jose City College to give coach Rhonda Williams her 500th win on Saturday. FCC lost the first game by the score of 5-6 and won the second 7-1.

“We’ve had a lot of good players in our program,” said Williams who is in her 19th season as coach. “That’s what it speaks to. It speaks to the amount of talent that we have here in the Valley, the talent we have had play here at Fresno City, the support of the administration and I’ve had some great assistant coaches. It’s not me. It’s all of that.”

The Jaguars started the first game of the doubleheader with four runs in the first inning including the first of two home runs by SJCC first baseman Miriah Chavez. Chavez now leads the South Coast Conference with 13 home runs.

“They felt sweet coming off the bat,” said Chavez about the two home runs.

The Rams Kyla Cisneros blasted a 2-run-shot in the third to put the Rams on the board. In the bottom of the fourth, the Rams were able to gain on the Jaguars’ lead by scoring two more runs.

In the bottom of the fifth, Jaguars’ pitcher Giana Cavallero allowed the Rams to load the bases with a walk. FCC’s Courtney Rodgers scored the only run that came in and the Jaguars were able to close out the game with the score of 6-5.

In the second game, the Rams were the ones who got off to a hot start with a three-run homerun by pitcher Grace Combs in the bottom of the first. Infielder Kassie Sierras also scored a run to make the score 4-0.

In the bottom of the second, SJCC pitcher Giana Cavallero, who finished game one and started game two for the Jaguars, allowed the Rams to load the bases and the Rams capitalized by scoring three runs to make the score 7-0.

In the top of the fifth inning, SJCC outfielder Klarke Lister homered for the Jaguars’ only run of the game.

Pitcher Grace Combs improved her record to 16-3 with a win. Combs had a monster game on both sides of the ball in the second game of the afternoon. Combs came in to the game with a Central Valley Conference leading 91 strikeouts and added five more in the game. She also added a home run to her season total of four.

“We were more pumped after losing the first game because it was so close that we wanted to come out in the second game and shut them down,” said Combs.

FCC infielder Rainie Thiessen leads the CVC with a .512 batting average and added to her batting average by going 3 for 4 in the second game.

“I feel like we competed well and our team worked together very good,” said Thiessen.

The split brings the Rams overall record to 22- 7. These games also brought the Jaguars to a 25-8 record.

SJCC coach Debbie Huntze-Rooney said “They played better that second game.” Rooney added “I think for us, coming out and hitting some shots helped us. They battled to come back but fortunately we held them off.”

The start of the second game was the highlight of the series for the Rams who struggled to get going in the first game.

“It was a good day for us. We battled back in that first game after giving up the runs in the first couple of innings,” Williams said. “I was real proud of the way the girls came out and took it right to them in the first innings of the second game.”