Dos Pueblos’ Georgia Wilson outdueled San Marcos’ Lucy Dessert to power the Chargers to a 2-1 rivalry victory over the Royals on Friday at Okinaka Field.
With the win, Dos Pueblos (5-4, 3-0 Channel League) remained undefeated in league play and leapfrogged San Marcos (6-2, 2-1 CL) in the standings.
After a 1-2-3 first inning from Wilson, the Chargers got right to work in the bottom half of the frame thanks to a leadoff single by Anastasia Brunner.
Kacey Hurley then dropped down a bunt and San Marcos committed an error, setting up runners on the corner with nobody out. After Hurley stole second, both Hurley and Brunner were in scoring position.
Zella Cassidy then got one run home on an RBI groundout and the Royals’ defense suffered another error off the bat of Kaitlyn Ashby, giving Dos Pueblos a 2-0 lead after the first.
“It was great because these games all have tension,” Chargers coach Mike Gerken said about his team’s quick start. “Everybody loves each other because they’ve been playing since they were six years old.
“To get a couple of runs in the first and reduce the tension a little, we were able to lighten up a little bit and we made a lot of plays, it showed on defense.”
Dessert settled in from there, tossing six innings for the Royals while allowing the two unearned runs on four hits and striking out five batters.
“I think Lucy showed so much growth and confidence for being a freshman getting the start in a big crosstown rivalry game,” San Marcos coach Emily Dietz said. “She showed composure and she was able to hit her spots and throw some big pitches when we needed her to. I’m really proud of her today.”
Both offenses were quiet for the next three innings until the top of the fifth when Kate Guerra drew a leadoff walk for the Royals.
Following a sacrifice bunt by Isabella Malarkey, Emma Foster stepped up to the plate with a chance to give her team their first run of the day.
She did just that, as Foster went to the opposite field and roped a double over the left fielder’s head to drive home Gianna Mandarino, who was pinch-running for Malarkey, and cut the Dos Pueblos lead in half at 2-1.
“[Foster] has been trying to work a lot with reading the defense and taking what they give her,” Dietz said. “She saw that they were playing in on her expecting small ball so she just let one fly.”
The Chargers came back in the bottom of the fifth and found themselves with a chance to tack on some insurance runs with two runners in scoring position with two outs.
Wilson slapped a ball to right field and it seemed as though she had given herself some cushion in the circle, but Foster came up firing from right field and secured the 9-3 putout to maintain the score at 2-1.
“[Foster] could play anywhere in the outfield but she loves right field and it’s for that play, I’ve never seen anyone else have more 9-3 putouts in my life,” Dietz said. “She lives for those moments and she embraces them.”
While the Royals may have been gaining some momentum late, it quickly swung back in favor of the Chargers thanks to an impressive diving play in center field by Brunner for the first out of the top of the sixth.
That web gem allowed Dos Pueblos to take control and Wilson set the Royals down in order in the sixth and seventh innings to clinch the crosstown win.
“We haven’t been putting a lot of runs on the board this year so our defense is really important to us,” Gerken said. “We understand that that’s a dangerous team over there and they’ve been scoring lots and lots of runs, but Georgia just doesn’t give up many runs.”
Wilson allowed just one run on two hits and collected five strikeouts in her seven innings of work to earn the victory.
“[Wilson] just knows how to get people out and I think that was evident today, she got a lot of ground balls with very few things hit in the air,” Gerken said. “She keeps the ball low and today our defense stepped up and it was just awesome behind her.”
The Royals and Chargers will match up once again on Monday at 3:30 p.m. on San Marcos’ campus, a game that was rescheduled due to rain on Wednesday.
“We know that we can produce a lot more and I think we’ll work on tweaking some things and on Monday be ready to go again,” Dietz said.
“We haven’t played our best game and there are adjustments to make,” Gerken said. “Dessert pitched a great game, she kept us off balance all game, we haven’t seen anybody throw changeups at us like that but now that we’ve seen it we can make some adjustments (for Monday).”