There were plenty of frustrating moments during Banning’s Mountain Pass League softball opener on Tuesday.
The 7-4 loss to Notre Dame stung but the real pain came from the error plagued effort turned in by the host Broncos.
“The little things, errors and things,” Banning Coach Maso Lara said. “There were a couple situations where we just didn’t handle things well. Little things that can be fixed.”
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The Broncos hit well at times, played defense well at times and were competitive throughout. That means the next meeting with Notre Dame is a winnable one for Banning (4-4, 0-1).
“The frustrating thing is that if we played a clean game, we come out on top,” Lara said. “So I confident about playing them the next two times.”
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It’s already been a breakthrough season for the Broncos, with more already this year than all of last season.
“It was frustrating but we kept talking to each other and tried to pick each other up,” said Felicity McCafferty. “We know we should have done better than this.”
Laura Becerra scored on a RBI by Rita Catano and Catano scored on a RBI single by Jesicah Lara. And two runs were driven in by Valen Thibault.
“We’ve got to be more aggressive at the plate,” Coach Lara said. “With runners in scoring position, we’ve got to bring them in. We can’t rely on walks. We have to manufacture more runs.”
Lara got the start and ended up with eight strikeouts.
“She gets frustrated but she battles,” Coach Lara said. “Some days she will be on top, some days she won’t. She understands.”
Notre Dame (6-3, 1-0) racked up 10 hits, including a second inning home run by Katie Dial (2 for 4 with 2 RBI).
