San Marcos softball poured on seven runs in the fifth inning to pull away for a 13-2 mercy-rule win over rival Santa Barbara High on Monday at San Marcos.
The Royals (8-12, 3-8 Channel League) scored four runs in the opening frame to set the tone before piling on the runs late for the crosstown Channel League win over the Dons (3-18, 0-11 CL). This is the penultimate league series for both teams.
“This part of the season should be the fun stuff,” San Marcos head coach Emily Dietz said. “No matter how our season shakes out, we’re only guaranteed so many games and we just want to enjoy it as much as we can, especially for our seniors.
“We’re going to keep working hard and improving.”
The San Marcos offense racked up 13 hits as a team, with Reese Large and Kayla Aguilar leading the way as they each went 3-for-4. Large drove in three runs and scored twice, while Aguilar ended with two RBI and two runs scored.
Meanwhile, the Royals’ starter Lucy Dessert went the distance, allowing two unearned runs on one hit and striking out six along the way to pick up the win.
“She was in some pain today, it’s been a long season for her, but she’s unwilling and unrelenting of giving up that starting pitcher position,” Dietz said. “She wants to battle every time even if she’s having an off day or if the team is having an off day.
“She’s willing to hang in there for as long as we need and she always wants the ball, and that’s what you want from your starting pitcher.”
After a 1-2-3 top of the first from San Marcos’ Lucy Dessert, the Royals opened the scoring in the bottom half with a two-out rally.
With two outs, Large broke the scoreless tie with an RBI single to left to score Solana Sandoval.
One batter later, Gianna Mandarino roped a two-run triple to left field, scoring Large and Jess Vega. Mandarino came in to score on an error to give San Marcos an early 4-0 lead.
“We know that we have offensive power there that can score a lot of runs early on and pretty quickly,” Dietz said. “It was just a matter of time before we were able to get the pieces in place to make that happen.
“It was great for our confidence the rest of the game, knowing that if there are innings where we didn’t scratch some across, we know we have the ability and it was going to happen again.”
The second and third innings went scoreless, and the Dons finally got into the scoring column in the fourth. After Alina Magdaleno walked and Laila Hernandez singled, Vienna Mochi came through with a two-run single to cut the deficit in half to 4-2.
The Royals got one of those runs right back in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single off the bat of Isa Malarkey, scoring Aguilar and making it a 5-2 lead.
The Dons then threatened in the top of the fifth with runners on first and second and one out, but Dessert got out of the jam with a strikeout and a groundout.
The San Marcos offense erupted in the bottom of the fifth, beginning with Dessert getting it done with the bat with a two-run double into center field to score Large and Mandarino.
After a walk and a strikeout, Aguilar roped her third hit of the day into right field and scored two more runs to go up 9-2.
Sandoval followed that up with a single, and Malarkey got in on the fun with an RBI single into left field. Following an error, Large came up to the plate with a chance to clinch the walk-off, mercy-rule win.
She did just that, as the junior lined her third hit of the game down the left field line for a two-run double and a 13-2 victory for the Royals.
“We’ve been talking a lot about making the adjustments from one at-bat to the next,” Dietz said of her team’s late-game surge. “Reese especially was getting under the ball a little bit and she was able to adjust at the end, get on top and hit it through.”
To go along with Large and Aguilar’s three-hit performances, Sandoval and Malarkey tallied two hits apiece, with Sandoval scoring twice and Malarkey driving in two runs.
As for the Dons, Madison Benedict and Mochi combined to pitch the game in the circle, while Alanah Salas made several big plays in center field.
These two teams will meet for a rematch at Santa Barbara High on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.