If not for the errors of its way, Cupertino’s softball team might have beaten the surging Monta Vista Matadors last week.
Ordinarily, the seven runs the Pioneers managed to put on the scoreboard might have been enough to win most of its games this year. But while their offense was holding up its end of the bargain, their defense was letting them down.
Cupertino committed five errors, leading to nine unearned runs as the Matadors broke open a close game with a late-inning barrage on the way to a 13-7 triumph that kept them in the thick of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division title race.
With the win, Monta Vista elevated its league record to 5-1, leaving the Matadors just a half-game in back of undefeated Mountain View (5-0). The two teams are scheduled to meet for the second time this season on April 24, 4 p.m., at Mountain View. The Eagles nipped the Matadors 6-5 the first time the two teams collided this season.
A four-run rally in the bottom of the fifth inning catapulted Cupertino to a 7-6 lead against Monta Vista. But the Mats responded with a four-run outburst of their own in the top of the sixth to regain the lead 10-7, and then put the game away for good with a three-run seventh-inning uprising.
Shortstop Danielle Koontz stroked three singles, scored twice and knocked in four runs to lead Monta Vista’s 14-hit attack. Koontz ended the week with a .407 batting average for the season.
Janaye Sakkas also ripped three hits for the winners, in addition to scoring three runs. Marissa Lee had two hits and two RBIs, and Mika Maenaga chipped in with two hits, three runs scored and one RBI.
Contributing one hit each were Monica McCarthy, who had two runs scored and two runs knocked in, Aly Olkein, Kaitlynn Yamauchi and Ann Marie Manley.
Sarah La Rue and Celina Arranaga were both 2 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs in the loss for Cupertino.
Arranaga leads the El Camino Division in batting average (.552), homers (3), slugging percentage (.931), runs-batted-in (28) and on-base percentage (.581). La Rue is second in homers (2).
Leina Pada also had a pair of hits for the Pioneers and scored twice, while Jordan Amick and Agnes Jang each had one hit.
Tamanna Ahluwalia blanked the hard-hitting Pioneers over the final two innings to pick up the win in relief.
Monta Vista followed up its crucial win over Cupertino with a 7-1 rout of Willow Glen in a non-league battle.
The Mats exploded for five runs in the bottom of the first inning and then coasted the rest of the way to victory.
Lee went 2 for 3 with two runs scored and a run driven in to lead the Mats at the plate. Jalin Siu, Maddy Marten, Sakkas, Marten, Manley and Maenaga each contributed one hit.
Ahluwalia upped her record to 6-2 for the year by going the distance for the win, scattering six hits and striking out a pair.
Cupertino, meanwhile, sustained a 12-2 whipping at the hands of Santa Clara in its non-league follow-up to its battle with Monta Vista. The Pioneers are 8-12-1 overall for the season.
Santa Clara also pummeled Lynbrook 19-2 in a non-league affair, outhitting the Vikings 20-4. Lynbrook committed nine errors, which paved the way to eight unearned runs.
Freshman Kasey Chuang provided the lone bright spot on the afternoon for the Vikings, collecting three of their four hits and scoring both of their runs. Chantal Naugle knocked in a run and Alyssa Kiefel had the Vikes’ only other hit.
Lynbrook, which sits in last place in the El Camino Division with an 0-6 record, is now 1-9 overall for the season.
Over in the SCVAL’s De Anza Division, Homestead–currently in a virtual three-way tie for first place with Los Altos and Wilcox–rolled to a pair of convincing non-league victories last week.
The Mustangs snapped a three-game non-league losing streak with a 9-3 triumph over Scotts Valley, the leader of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
After a home run in the top half of the first had given Scotts Valley a quick 1-0 lead, Homestead responded by scoring two runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning on a run-scoring single by Brittany Prock and a run-producing Scotts Valley miscue.
In the fifth, a double by Noa Yakir and a single by Maggie Matzinger made it 3-1 and triggered a four-run rally that broke things open.
Nicky Kirk kept the rally going with a single down the left field line that plated Matzinger. After hits by Rachel Maloney and Nikka Piazza loaded the bases, a walk to Carrine Peterson forced in the third run of the inning. An infield ground by Rachelle Cepeda plated the final run of the uprising.
The Mustangs added three more runs in the sixth on clutch two-out hits by Piazza and Peterson.
Eight of the nine Mustang starters in the game had hits, including two each by Kirk, Maloney and Piazza. Cepeda, Prock, Matzinger and Yakir each had one.
Prock notched the win, scattering 10 hits in a complete game effort. She walked just two and fanned four.
The Mustangs then trounced Fremont 11-1 behind a 15-hit assault.
Nancy Liu keyed the Homestead attack with a double, three singles and three runs scored. Cepeda, Prock, Peterson and Matzinger each chipped in with two hits, and Kirk, Piazza and Yakir each had one. Prock, Piazza and Yakir had two RBIs apiece, while Cepeda and Matzinger both had one.
Prock picked up the victory, allowing just four hits in a complete game effort, walking just one and striking out 10. She raised her record to 12-4 for the year while lowering her ERA to a microscopic 1.57.
The back-to-back wins upped Homestead’s overall record for the year to 13-6.
