By Jordan Xiao & Kevin Park
Tiger Staff
Photos by Stephanie Kim
The softball team seized an 8-1 win over Pasadena Polytechnic High School at home on Friday, March 13, extending its record to 3-2 for the season and putting the Tigers on a two-win streak.
The game started slowly for both teams, with neither scoring for the first two innings. Senior Cassie Baca led the Tigers’ defense from the mound, with sound support in the outfield from sophomore Katherine Conte and freshman Victoria Venardi to suppress the Panthers throughout the game.
Offensively, the Tigers took full advantage of the opposition’s mistakes to take an early lead. A grounder toward second base from Venardi brought Baca home for the first run of the game in the third inning. Conte and fellow sophomore Emily Swanson followed up with an RBI each, while Venardi scored on a sacrifice fly in foul territory to give the Tigers a four-run lead.
With bases loaded, junior Avery Douglas hit a bloop single, and an error from the Poly second baseman allowed two more runs for SPHS. Douglas topped off the Tigers’ success by making it home on a popup in foul ground, putting the score at 7-0 by the start of the fourth.
“I was pretty impressed with us. We got a jump early on in the game and we weren’t satisfied with just one or two runs; we kept our rally going,” Swanson said.
The Panthers never recovered from the third inning, scoring a single run in the sixth. Poly switched pitchers for the bottom of the sixth, but two sacrifice hits from South Pas brought Baca home again to keep the lead at eight runs for SPHS. The game finished with the Tigers victorious after a scoreless seventh.
“We played really well today and our defense is going to help us a lot this season because we’ve been able to keep it close enough so that we’re never out of the game,” freshman Sophie Reynolds said.
After a busy week of ball, the softball team will receive a short break and continue its high level of play against the Alhambra Moors on Thursday, March 19 and the Monrovia Wildcats on the following Friday, March 20.
