Valencia Vikings softball kept the undefeated season in Foothill League play alive on Tuesday after a tight victory over the hosting Saugus Centurions.
Valencia jumped ahead in the first at-bat of the game as Jeanelle Bacat launched a solo shot well out of play. Vikings junior Carly Kearns led on both offense and defense as the ace held off the Centurion bats while delivering the go-ahead run in the second inning.
The pair of runs would be enough to win the league battle 2-1.
Saugus (10-8, 5-3) got off to a hot start and nearly tripled its run total in the first inning. The Centurions fired three straight hits off Kearns on a one-out rally including an RBI double from catcher Kaylie Stauffer to score sophomore Savannah Smith.
Kearns shook off the rut and went on to retire 13 of her next 14 opponents. The junior pitcher was perfect against Saugus’ fifth through ninth hitters and finished the game with seven strikeouts and no walks.
Saugus out-hit Valencia (15-4, 8-0) on the day but just couldn’t get the timely hit. Stauffer and leadoff hitter Malia Horvat both finished with two-hit days.
The Centurions elected to pull sophomore Kona Ramsbottom after just 1.2 innings of work. Ramsbottom wasn’t missing by much but Saugus trusted its even younger arm on freshman Riley Nelson to go the distance.
Nelson came in and blanked the Valencia bats for the remainder of the game. Nelson had a handful of walks but allowed no runs, three hits and fanned six Vikings.
“(Nelson) has just done such a phenomenal job as a freshman,” Centurions coach Amanda Clark said in a phone interview. “We knew with the young pitching staff, we are going to have to utilize all of them as best as we could and she did great today.”
The only Valencia batter to get the better of Nelson was fellow freshman Syndey Bolder, who smacked two singles against her underclass rival.
The Vikes also saw a two-hit day from six-spot hitter Abby Garcia, who has been untouchable in league play. Garcia’s 2-for-2 with a walk brings the senior up to an unbelievable .727 batting average in league play.
“She’s batting sixth, in the middle but I just love her there because she extends our lineup so well,” Valencia coach Sean Pollard said. “Every time you look up, she’s on base.”
Kearns turned up the heat to close out the game and looked like a relaxed veteran in the circle. The pitcher struck out back-to-back pinch hitters before forcing the game-winning groundout to close out Saugus before the top of the order came back up to the plate.
Valencia couldn’t be in a better spot and is inching toward its second consecutive league championship.
“They are very competitive. They hate to lose and the one thing I think is different with us this year than last year is that we never feel out of anything. So even if somebody gets on us. It’s in tournaments that’s happened and we’ve clawed our way back and won some but clawed our way back and still lost, but that competitiveness is there,” Pollard said.
Saugus didn’t get revenge after its earlier loss to Valencia but Clark said it was a completely different team taking the field for round two with the Vikings.
“That the first game is always early in the season and players aren’t in a groove yet, nervous and it’s a big game,” Clark said. “I think we just had time to refocus, settle in and kind of play our game. We’ve done really well with that and today was a great game so we’re very proud of them.”
The Centurions remain tied for second in league and still sit in the driver seat for clinching a playoff spot with just a few weeks of regular season games to go.
“We just need to stay focused, one game at a time,” Clark said. “We have to play within ourselves and keep our game plan going. I think we’ll finish out pretty solid.”
Pollard has seen some outstanding defense on the diamond and hopes to see his Vikings continue to battle in what could be the early days of another Valencia softball dynasty.
“I think it’s important that we continue playing great defense,” Pollard said. “We’ve been playing pretty darn good defense, which is big. We need to keep that up.”
Both teams return home for league games on Thursday at 3:15 as Valencia hosts Castaic while Saugus welcomes West Ranch.
