Nia Melendez is just a freshman at Hart High School, but her presence on the softball field is already being felt.
Coming up to bat in two high-pressure situations late in Thursday’s Foothill League matchup at home against the West Ranch Wildcats (6-7, 3-2), Melendez delivered both times to help the Indians (9-5, 2-3) pick up the win, 8-5.
“I’ve been working on, whenever there’s a pressure situation, just focusing on getting a base hit because a lot of the time, it’s kind of hard,” Melendez said. “You feel like, ‘Oh, I want to get this grand slam right here and be the hero,’ but at the end of the day, you have to help your team out instead of yourself.”
She didn’t hit a grand slam but she was responsible for four RBIs, hitting a three-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the Indians out in front for the first time before tacking on another run with an RBI single in the sixth.
Melendez finished the game with three hits as the Indians battled in a back-and-forth affair to claim their second league win of the campaign.
It’s been a bit of a struggle for Hart to begin the season, with multiple starters missing due to injury, Hart head coach Steve Calendo said. But the fight that he saw from his players on Thursday gives him reason to believe that they may be turning a corner.
“The first two weeks, we were fully healthy, we were getting seven, eight runs a game,” Calendo said. “We lost our catcher to a broken thumb, it kind of took the air out of us, and moving kids around to find a catcher again. And I think we all started focusing on that and just lost our confidence.”
It looked to be a low-scoring affair with no runs coming across through three innings. West Ranch was able to pull ahead with a run in the top of the fourth and two more in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead.
Rachel Brown plated the game’s first run when she scored on a double play. Ava Esparza-Nguyen then scored on a sacrifice bunt in the fourth followed by Payton Borland being driven in on a single from Namoi Stoll.
The Wildcats’ pitcher, Stoll was cruising through four innings before the Indians hung five runs on her in the fifth, capitalized by Melendez’s base-clearing double. Hart got on the board on an error that scored Jillian Rhodes before Melendez gave the Indians their first lead of the day. She scored the fifth run of the inning on a Jessica Gutierrez single.
“It was really nice to finally get into the groove,” Melendez said. “And after that fifth inning I feel like our team is finally getting it together.”
West Ranch pulled back with a run in the sixth on a fielder’s choice that brought home Krista Viereck.
Hart wasn’t done scoring, though, adding three runs in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to four. Brooke Henry singled to lead off the inning before being brought in on an error. Melendez then singled home Nicole Specht followed by Alexis Lopez scoring on a wild pitch.
The Wildcats had a shot to tie things up in the seventh, but Specht was able to keep them to one run in the frame to seal the win. She finished with two strikeouts and 10 hits and five earned runs allowed over the seven innings.
“She’s been on all season,” Melendez said.
West Ranch head coach Phil Giarrizzo wasn’t surprised by the slow start offensively from both teams.
“We knew a lot of what was going on with them, so we were able to call pitches (to hurt them), and the same thing (for them),” Giarrizzo said. “They were going to throw us off-speed because they know we’re a good-hitting team, and they did just that, so it kind of threw us off a little bit, too.”
Stoll finished with just seven hits allowed, and only two of the eight runs scored on her were earned. The Indians were able to get through the entirety of the game without striking out.
“That’s good. They were patient,” Calendo said. “They hit the right pitches. It just took them some innings to get there. It’s all about confidence with these young girls.”
Both squads were set for non-league action over the weekend before getting back to Foothill League play on Tuesday.
West Ranch is set to travel to Golden Valley (6-10-1, 2-2) while Hart has a meeting with Canyon (6-7-1, 2-3) on the road. Both games are scheduled to begin at 3:15 p.m.
