San Marcos softball began its season by dropping both ends of their doubleheader with St. Joseph of Lakewood on Saturday in Santa Barbara.
The Royals struggled on the offensive end, beginning the day with a 9-1 loss and falling by a score of 8-0 in game two.
“Although it’s tough to start the season down two games, I think this was a great eye opener on what we can work on and improve on moving forward,” San Marcos head coach Emily Dietz said. “It also gave us a lot of positives to pull from and a lot to look forward to.”
Despite the end result, San Marcos kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first inning of game one. Autumn Johnson led off with a walk and Solana Sandoval followed with a double. A few pitches later, Johnson scampered home on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead.
However, St. Joseph answered with three runs in each of the next two innings to take the lead and all of the game’s momentum.
The visitors continued to roll throughout game one and carried the energy into game two, where they secured the shutout win.
Sandoval went 3-for-3 in the first game of the day, while Isa Malarkey went 2-for-3. Lucy Dessert and Johnson handled the pitching duties for the Royals.
“[Sandoval] works so hard and prides herself on her hitting, and I’m so excited for the season ahead for her,” Dietz said. “Johnson also did everything we asked of her and then some. We’ve been having her practice a lot at middle infield, but she pitched more than anticipated for us today, played great in left field and at first base.
“Another bright spot today was Sutera Raring coming up from JV and catching all 14 innings for us. That was a huge task to ask of her and she worked really hard back there all day for us and had some great stops.”