On Thursday, Feb. 29, Mt. SAC softball smashed it out of the park with a 4-0 home victory against the LA Harbor Seahawks.
SAC started the game with a three up and three down against the Seahawks early on.
In the bottom of the first inning, SAC scored their first run of the game after sophomore shortstop and second baseman Janis Espinoza (19) got the rally started with a base hit into right field, stole second base and advanced to third on a wild pitch. With freshman third and first baseman Mercedes Alba (20) up to bat, SAC drove in a run with an RBI single with Espinoza (19) scoring from third leaving the score 1-0 at the end of the first inning.
The start of the second inning didn’t look any different from the Seahawks. Freshman pitcher Aleyna Urbina (7) wasn’t taking it easy on the Seahawks and struck out the side to retire the first six Seahawk batters without giving up a base. Despite SAC getting hits in during the bottom of the second, runners were left stranded keeping the score at 1-0 going into the third inning.
There was no change to the score during the third inning. The Seahawks hit into two groundouts and had one batter strike out. SAC battled in the bottom of the third but only managed to hit three groundouts.
At the top of the fourth inning, the Seahawks finally saw their first baserunner but SAC’s defense did not break and were able to hold the Seahawks to one baserunner and retired the side before anyone could make it home. In the bottom of the fourth, SAC registered three hits and drove in one run from sophomore second baseman Amanda Esquivel (24) after catcher Morgan Knubuhler (9) hit a double. The score at the end of the fourth inning was 2-0.
SAC continued to put on a pitching masterclass keeping the donut in the score column for the Seahawks with another three up and three down top of the inning but was only able to get a single hit from Espinoza (19) leaving her stranded. Still 2-0 through five innings.
After retiring another three straight Seahawks batters, SAC added some insurance runs by scoring two in the bottom of the sixth inning. Sophomore pitcher Alyssa Rubacalva (14) scored the first run of the rally off of a Knubuhler (9) double with freshman outfielder Mia Martin (27) advancing from first to third. Martin (27) would reach home on the sac fly from freshman third baseman Kaitie Griego (6) with Knubuhler (9) advancing to third.
The Seahawks were unable to score get any momentum in their final at-bats in the seventh inning ending the game with a score of 4-0.
According to Griego (6) the biggest takeaway from this game was the team having to learn how to play with intensity. “We need to stay calm, cool, and collected,” she said going into the next game.
“Go after them right away and be prepared defensively,” assistant coach Anthony Gonzales said, looking into the future for the upcoming games.
The next home games for Mt. SAC softball is on March 1, against El Camino and on March 7, against Long Beach.
