All season long, the fourth inning has been trouble for the Pitman Pride softball team — and Thursday's Central California Conference matchup against Atwater proved it once again.

Two errors in the fourth brought about a three-run inning for the Falcons and, unfortunately for the Pride, they were unable to bounce back as they accumulated only one score for the game to end it 3-1 at home.

“The wonderful fourth inning… it’s where we have had issues all year, it has been where every team scores on us whether we win or lose, that’s just really weird,” Pitman head coach Joe Lewis said. “I told the girls that we can’t make errors and expect to win games, especially tight ones like this.”

After Pitman’s loss, they have snapped a four-game winning streak and dropped into third place in CCC with a 7-4 record, as Buhach Colony now takes over second place (8-4).

It was not much of an offensive game for the Pride as they tallied only five hits combined for the day.

“We have to get the bats swinging again,” Lewis said about his offense.

The Pride was shutout in the first four innings, until finally something happened in the bottom of the fifth.

Regan Wolfley led off with a deep double to the right center field gap, which was followed by a Spencer Bronken sac-bunt to get on first. A throwing error to first base gave Wolfley enough time to round it home and she scored the only run for the Pride.

With Bronken on first and no outs, a rally looked to be coming as Aly Hagen was up but it turned into a sacrifice hit as Bronken was tagged out at second.

 “We didn’t hit well when people were on. It’s frustrating when you play like that but there’s nothing to do but learn from it and move on,” said Lewis.

Mettler started the game as she picked up the loss, but allowed only one earned run on four hits in four innings. Sally Acosta finished the game tossing three shutout innings.

This upcoming spring break the Pride will compete in the Nor Cal Tournament in Tracy.

Once they return from spring break, the Lady Pride will continue their CCC push into that second place position with a critical matchup against second place Buhach Colony at 3:30 p.m. April 29 at Buhach.