Riding a four-game winning streak, Saugus softball headed out on the road to Camarillo for a doubleheader on Friday.
Coming away with victories in both games, Saugus battled back to win the first game 5-3 and held back Camarillo to escape with a 5-4 win in the second game.
“We have really good team chemistry this year, our hitting lineup is pretty strong and we have been putting up a lot of runs on teams,” said Saugus head coach Julie Archer. “Giving them more confidence and right now we are just gelling together. Hopefully, it continues.”
Falling behind 3-0 in the first inning of Game 1, Saugus pitcher Malia Risdall gave up three hits that scored three runs but pulled it together the rest of the way to pitch a complete game, giving up four hits and two earned runs while striking out three batters in the process.
“Malia Risdall threw a complete game and after the first inning she was dialed in and was good to go, but she gave up a few hits,” Archer said. “I think we made an error or two and a walk so we didn’t start the game off great, but came back later stronger.”
Chipping away at the Scorpions’ lead, Saugus (6-1 overall) got a run back in third after a solo home run by Allie Enright.
McKenna Gibson got the Cents within a run of Camarillo (1-4) in the top of the sixth inning with a leadoff solo blast.
Gibson finished the game going 3-for-4 with two RBIs and the solo home run.
“She is on fire right now,” Archer said of Gibson. “She came up with two RBIs in the game, so she just has the hot bat right now and she came up clutch for us.”
Down 3-2, Saugus continued the momentum in its final at-bat with a monster three-run seventh inning with RBI singles by Bella Alvarez and Gibson, and an RBI groundout by Maya Avila that put the Cents ahead for good.
“It’s good that they never gave up, even though they waited until the last inning,’ Archer said. “Sometimes you get defeated, but they just started stringing some hits together in the end and we ended up scoring three in the last inning.”
In an inverse of the first game, Saugus took the game’s first lead scoring five runs in the top of the third inning. Gracie Keene hit an RBI, Avila hit a two-run double and Alyssa Ramirez ended the scoring with a two-run single.
“We just got hit after hit after hit,” Archer said. “For some reason, we do it all in one inning, but we string a bunch of hits together. It was just one of those innings where we came up with a bunch of hits in a row and were able to score.”
This time, Camarillo was the one that tried to come back, scoring one run in both the fourth and fifth innings and another two in the sixth, but it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback as they fell for the second time on the day.
Saugus faces Mission Viejo in the Tournament of Champions in Bullhead City, Ariz. at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
