Dos Pueblos softball cruised to a dominant 18-0 mercy-rule victory over crosstown rival Santa Barbara High on Tuesday.
Freshman Juliana Brunner shined in the circle, striking out eight and allowing two hits in a complete-game effort. Meanwhile, her sister Anastasia Brunner led the offense by going 4-for-4 with a home run, two doubles and three RBI.
“I’m proud of our performance today,” Dos Pueblos head coach Mike Gerken said. “Yesterday, we did not take advantage of our opportunities, but we adjusted today and hit good pitches hard every time we had runners on base. It was nice to capitalize on our chances.
“Juliana threw a great game. She was focused on the zone and only threw 11 balls out of 57 pitches. That’s a pretty impressive outing.”
The Chargers jumped on the Dons early with five runs in the first inning courtesy of a three-run homer off the bat of Kaitlyn Ashby and run-scoring hits from Juliana Brunner and Esme Mazurkiewicz.
Dos Pueblos continued to roll in the second inning, batting around and plating eight more runs to extend its lead to 13-0.
Anastasia Brunner delivered a solo homer and a two-run double in the frame while Mazurkiewicz drove in her second run of the day on a single.
Dos Pueblos added on three runs in the third and rounded out the scoring in the fourth with a two-run homer by Brooklyn Hedricks, her second in as many days.
Mazurkiewicz and Zella Cassidy each went 3-for-4 to contribute to the 18-hit effort, while Kacey Hurley and Hedricks tallied multi-hit performances as well.
The Chargers (6-7, 5-1 Channel League) and Dons (3-11, 0-7 Channel League) will meet once again on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in Goleta.
Oxnard 10, San Marcos 2
The Royals dropped their Channel League matchup with the Yellow Jackets on Tuesday in Santa Barbara.
“Although it wasn’t a win there were a lot of bright spots in our game today,” San Marcos head coach Emily Dietz said. “Our offense is picking up and we had a lot of girls contributing top to bottom in the lineup.
“[Oxnard’s] freshman pitcher, Destinee Herrera, has been pretty dominant in league with 3 hits allowed and 21 strikeouts, so to get seven hits against her including a home run and double is a positive for us as we move into the second half of league.”
San Marcos took an early 1-0 lead in the opening frame when Solana Sandoval scored on an Oxnard error.
However, the Yellow Jackets responded with a pair of runs in the second and never gave up the lead. The visitors scored one run in the third before blowing the game open with seven runs in the fifth to pull away.
“Oxnard is a very talented and well coached team,” Dietz said. “They take advantage of every little thing you give them and they were able to string together hits and push runs across.”
The final run for the Royals came on a solo homer off the bat of Isa Malarkey in the bottom of the sixth. Malarkey and Lucy Dessert tallied two hits apiece.
San Marcos will be on the road for a rematch with Oxnard on Friday.