San Marcos softball outlasted Oxnard High for a 7-6 extra-inning victory on Tuesday in Oxnard.
The Royals plated six runs in the top of the second, but the Yellow Jackets responded with six unanswered runs across the next five innings to tie the game up in the bottom of the seventh and send it into extras.
After two scoreless frames in extra innings, San Marcos broke through in the top of the 10th when Sutera Raring roped an RBI single up the middle to score Riley Zant from second.
Lucy Dessert, who pitched all 10 innings for the Royals, then stepped back into the circle and fired a 1-2-3 bottom of the 10th to finish off the victory.
“We’ll have to check the books for the last time we’ve beaten Oxnard, but it’s been a long time coming,” San Marcos head coach Emily Dietz said. “This whole season we’ve played strong teams really closely, we’ve had a lot of extra-inning games that just go the other way for us.
“I’m so proud of the girls for staying tough and answering back under pressure. We know Oxnard will be ready to answer back Friday against us at home, we’re looking forward to another close league game.”
In the Royals’ big second inning, Piper Kittle, Solana Sandoval and Reese Large all drove in runs.
Dessert and Raring each tallied two hits for San Marcos, while Dessert allowed just four earned runs and struck out seven in her 10 innings of work. The San Marcos defense also turned in a strong performance behind Dessert.
“Our defense did a great job of not getting distracted and making outs when necessary,” Dietz said. “Lucy also did a great job of keeping a strong lineup off balance four to five times through the lineup.”
These two teams will meet again in Santa Barbara on Friday at 3:30 p.m.