Saugus Centurions softball never lost control in Tuesday’s road battle with the West Ranch Wildcats. The Centurions won the game 22-7 after putting the game away with a 12-run seventh inning.
West Ranch (3-12, 2-4) put up three runs in the top of the sixth to cut the deficit to just three runs. The Cats seemingly had the momentum and potential to walk off in the seventh after Krista Viereck launched her fourth hit of the day over the fence.
Viereck led the Cats, going 4-of-4 at the plate, and finished a triple shy of the cycle.
Saugus’ huge rally erased any chance of a Cats’ win. The hits just kept coming as four Centurions had three or more hits on the day, including senior Shae Sabedra, who led Saugus (12-9, 4-3) with a five-hit day and as many RBI.
“I really strive for getting a hit in every single at-bat,” Sabedra said. “I don’t really think too much overall, I just want to conquer that specific at-bat when it comes to it. People will just go for average, but I’m going just for a win at that specific time.”
Sabedra opened up the scoring immediately and knocked in a pair of runs in her first at-bat to spark a five-run first inning.
West Ranch shook off the early-inning deficit with a pair of RBI doubles coming from Viereck and Rachel Brown.
Leadoff hitter Madison Campeau piled in most of the RBI in a 4-of-5, two-home-run day.
“I was just really relaxed,” Campeau said. “I recognize my role on the team as my team counts on me to get it going most of the time. I try to set the tone when I walk up to the plate. So, I tried to do my best to have good at bats and help encourage other players, giving them confidence when they’re hitting. I just kept it simple, I trust my swing, trust my hands and good things happen.”
The Cents were only held scoreless in two innings thanks to strong hitting all up and down the order, and even from the team’s reserves, who all entered Tuesday’s Foothill League contest.
“Our goal was let’s just play our game, let’s help the pitchers today and let’s have a team effort,” said Saugus coach Amanda Clark. “Let’s get everyone in the game today and we did that. Every single player played today and contributed so I’m happy with that. We have a good group of 19 kids on the team, too. So, to get all 19 in the game is a victory.”
The Saugus freshman duo of Kona Ramsbottom and Taliya Mata collectively shut down the Wildcats from the circle, holding the Cats scoreless for five innings of the day. Ramsbottom got the start and fanned three batters while allowing just one earned run over 2.1 innings of work. Mata went the rest of the way, striking out four Wildcats and walking just one.
“This is probably the most runs that any teams have scored on us in quite a while,” Clark said. “They’ve been in low-run games, but we just haven’t been scoring for Kona and Taliya, but they’ve done a phenomenal job. As freshmen I would have expected them to have a lot more runs put up against them, but they’ve held their own. So, if our offense can keep doing this and having their backs, it should be a fun little ending to our league play.”
The cherry on top for Saugus was a home run from freshman Amelia Johnson for the 22nd run of the day.
The win marked three in a row for Saugus while the Cats coincidentally dropped their third straight. The two teams look different from their previous matchup this year, when the Centurions won 5-1.
Campeau believes the team has come together tenfold since that game, just in time for the final stretch of the regular season.
“We have a lot of talent on this team,” Campeau said. “I think we’re finally coming into that because for a long time, I think that we were young and a lot of wrenches got thrown into our momentum early on, which shook some things up. But I think we’re finally coming into ourselves as players and as a team in general.”
The team will hope to keep piling in the runs to finish the year, whether it be another season-best 22 runs or just enough to edge past their opponents.
“We’ve always had it. We just needed to put it together and find what works for us,” Sabedra said. “We all struggled in the beginning and it slowly came together.”
The Centurions will head to Hart for their joint senior night on Thursday at 7 p.m. while the Wildcats will look to get back on track that day with a home matchup with Valencia at 3:30 p.m.
