Vaqueros get back on the winning track

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — The Glendale Community College softball team entered Thursday afternoon’s Western State Conference interdivisional game on a three-game losing skid and in search of a tonic to cure its ails.

The Vaqueros found that cure in the form of visiting Allan Hancock College.

Sophomore pitcher Kelly Korras twirled six shutout innings and all nine starters collected at least one hit, as Glendale college rolled to an 8-0 victory at the Glendale Sports Complex.

Glendale (11-4, 5-1) took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth before Glendale High product Melissa Legaspi lined a single down the first-base line.

Desiree Cunanan and Angela Pizzo both crossed the plate, putting the mercy rule into effect and ending the game on the spot.

It was a nice ending to a contest in which Glendale struggled to find hits in the early innings.

“It’s always good to win,” Vaqueros Coach Dave “Hawk” Wilder said. “This is what we should be doing and this is what we’re not doing. We are waiting too long to start swinging the bats.”

The Vaqueros’ offense couldn’t get off the ground in the first two innings, failing to get a runner on base.

Korras, who fanned 10 batters and surrendered just three hits, kept the Vaqueros close though, as an aggressive approach helped her strike out eight of the first 11 batters she faced.

“I like to get ahead of the batters,” said Korras, who singled in the fifth inning. “I don’t like to fall behind because then I feel rushed and like I need to do things differently than I’d like to.”

Glendale was able to manufacture two runs in the third inning when Jocelyn Pedraza singled home Cunanan. Two batters later, Pedraza got caught in a rundown between third and home, but was somehow able to sneak under the tag of Hancock catcher Lily Ruiz to score a run.

“It seems for us, we all have to see [the opposing pitcher] once before we start hitting,” Korras said. “That’s kind of how we’ve been all season. Hopefully, we can change that and start scoring earlier.”

In the fourth inning, the Vaqueros broke out the big lumber.

Sophomore Sarah Sardo led off the inning and belted an inside-the-park home run to deep right field.

Diana Garcia followed with a single and was promptly knocked in by Debbie Martin’s long triple.

A Krista Smith fielder’s choice plated Martin, as Hancock (1-10) tried to get the speedy freshman at home, but to no avail.

Cunanan laced a double down the right-field line to push Smith across and bust the game wide open at 6-0.

Sardo and Pedraza each finished with two hits apiece.

Glendale college, which won 10 in a row prior to dropping three, hits the road at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday to take on Moorpark and will try and jump start a new winning streak.

“We are young,” Wilder said. “I said it would take us a couple months and it’s taken us that and we’re still not hitters yet. ... We are breaking them down and now we are trying to build them back up again. We have the potential.”

?DYLAN KRUSE covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3252 or dylan.kruse@latimes.com.