Lucido’s leadoff HR sparks 5-2 win at first-place Cuesta

Victoria Lucido homered to lead off the game on Thursday and Celeste Acosta tossed a five-hitter, guiding SBCC to a 5-2 softball win over first-place Cuesta in San Luis Obispo.

The Vaqueros (18-15, 9-4) knocked off a WSC Gold Division leader for the second time in three days. The Cougars (24-12, 11-4) fell a game behind Hancock (12-3) in the race for the conference title. The Vaqueros are in third place, just one game back in the loss column.

Alice Cen went 3-4, boosting her team-high average to .387. She also made a couple of solid fielding plays at shortstop. Acosta evened her record at 14-14, allowing just one earned run with five strikeouts and two walks.

"We're coming around and starting to hit our stride," said coach Paula Congleton. "We're peaking at the right time."

The Vaqueros went ahead 2-0 in the first on Lucido's second homer and an RBI single by Amanda Caras. They took a 3-1 lead second on a sacrifice fly by Lucido.

After Cuesta got within a run in the fourth, the Vaqueros added two in the fifth. Danielle de Castro brought home Cen with a triple and Christal Vierra followed with an RBI single.

The Vaqueros travel to Ventura for a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Tuesday and host Oxnard on Thursday.