With a 3-2 win over the El Camino Real Royals of Woodland Hills on Monday, the Valencia Vikings secured their first home win of the year and improved to a 3-2 overall record to start the season.
“Everyone really stepped up and helped each other,” Valencia head coach Sean Pollard said. “Keira Rand came in and kind of locked down the rest of the game for us, which is great. I felt like we left a lot of runners on. We’ve been doing that lately, so we had to make those adjustments and fix that.”
In the first inning, Pollard started freshman Emily Contreras in the circle and she only went one inning, giving up two runs and two hits.
In the second, Pollard relieved Contreras and threw in Rand, who went the remainder of the distance and threw for six innings, allowing two hits, and striking out five.
After the game, Pollard said Rand set the tone in the second inning and never let the Royals’ offense gain any momentum to add more runs to their score.
“She doesn’t get rattled. She played high-level tennis her whole life growing up, so she kind of likes the limelight,” he said. “But she doesn’t mind the pressure. She kind of likes it.”
After a two-run first inning from Valencia’s offense, the Vikings struggled in the second and third innings as they went three up, three down in both frames.
But in the fourth inning, the Vikings notched a run when sophomore Aubrie Jensen scored off a passed ball.
Pollard said the team was shocked after the Royals took the early lead but he relayed to his team that the game was young, and they have the firepower to come back and score.
“There’s so much game left, literally the whole game is left, so we were just trying to stay up and keep clawing away,” he said. “They always play hard. They’ll always put their hearts into it.”
The lone score in the fourth inning would be the game-winning run for Valencia as the Vikings closed out the final few innings for the win.
The Vikings secured their first home win of the season after starting the year on the road for the first four games. They opened the season on back-to-back losses to Sierra Canyon and Thousand Oaks but have won three straight over Oak Park, Crescenta Valley and El Camino Real.
Pollard added that he has learned a lot in the early portion of the season and with the win over the Royals, he’s eager to get back on the field and take the momentum into Foothill League play.
“It’s very key,” he said. “We’ve been kind of banged up early in the season. So, we’re starting to get healthy and get back the weapons, so to speak. Butwe’re finally starting to click and get things together, so it’s really key going in the league. It should be a competitive league this year.”
The Vikings play again at home Thursday against the visiting Simi Valley Royals with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
