The West Ranch Wildcats softball team may be full of young players, but head coach Mike Merrilees said you wouldn’t know it watching them play.
Using what Merrilees called the Wildcats’ brand of softball, West Ranch beat the La Cañada Spartans on the road on Wednesday, 7-4, to advance to the CIF Southern Section Division 5 semifinals.
Eight of the nine West Ranch starters recorded a hit, led by junior Madison Meister’s three-hit day. Freshman Gretchen Roen allowed 12 hits in the circle but got some help from her defense when she needed it.
“It feels validating,” said Merrilees in a Thursday phone interview. “We’ve worked a lot on our defense. From the start of the year, we’ve strived for perfect defense. That’s what we’re all about: perfection … Along the way, we’ve all started to hit and have just come up clutch in different moments time and time again.”
Meister had a double and scored twice, while junior Payton Borland had two runs driven in. Senior Isabella Swanson had two hits and Roen helped her own cause with two RBIs. Sophomore Naomi Stoll had a double while scoring once and driving in one run.
The Wildcats have been putting runs on the board throughout their first three playoff games. They’ve scored 28 times in those three games.
“Just timely hitting,” Merrilees said. “It doesn’t matter who it is on our team, somebody steps up. It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter with this group. Whether you’re hitting one or nine, somebody’s contributing. It’s almost like it’s somebody new every game.”
West Ranch has now won 12 of its last 14 games dating back to the regular season, a run that led the Wildcats to second place in the Foothill League standings. Merrilees credited the bond that his group has for putting together that late-season surge.
“It’s a funhouse that we’ve built,” Merrilees said. “Whether you’re on the bench or in the lineup, it’s probably one of the craziest dugouts I’ve been in where you struggle to kind of help yourself think, because it’s just crazy. I’ve never seen a group of girls in one boat rowing together. In all of my coaching history, I’ve never seen a team that is this closely tied to each other at the hip.”
Next up are the Cerritos Dons on the road on Saturday in the Division 5 semifinals. That game is set to begin at 3:15 p.m.
“We checked all of our boxes,” Merrilees said. “We kept all of our receipts of what everybody said we weren’t going to be. We finished second in league. Here we are, kind of the last man standing. So, yeah, it’s fun to watch. It’s fun to be around.”
