Softball: Spartans Top Streaking Wildcats, Remain Perfect in League

The Monrovia softball team came into Wednesday’s game against La Canada unbeaten in its past five games, but Spartans ace Lauren O’Leary did her best to cool off the Wildcats. O’Leary allowed just one hit in five innings while just allowing a hit, and a solid offensive display by the Spartan bats carried La Canada to a 7-0 road win.

“Runs came in at a premium today,” Spartans coach KC Mathews said. “We did a solid job running the bases and kept our focus throughout. Both their pitchers, though, kept our hitters a bit off balance, but coming through with two outs means that we did our job when we needed to.”

O’Leary only managed six strikeouts — an off-night for her — but her ability to locate her pitches throughout her time in the circle kept Monrovia’s bats rather quiet. She only threw 46 pitches and was ahead in all but two counts to batters. Lauren Cox replaced O’Leary in the final two innings, striking out four without allowing a hit.

Cox’s appearance Wednesday was her first of the year, as the junior missed the start of the season as she battled to overcome a groin injury. With Cox back in the mix, the Spartans now have two of the top pitchers in the area to send to the circle. Cox threw 80 1/3 innings last year, striking out striking out 161 and finishing with a 0.35 ERA.

The Spartans only needed two productive innings offensively to secure the win, and all seven runs crossed the plates with two outs. After Emmy Orozco retired the first two batters, La Canada answered back with back-to-back base hits. Shirley Drange then cleared the bases with a double up the right centerfield gap. She later scored on a base hit from Stephanie Bathke. Orozco then set down the next 11 of 13 batters to end her afternoon, allowing five hits in four innings.

Adrienne Guerra took over for Orozco in the fifth, and she too struggled after retiring two batters. With the bases loaded, Aubri Thompson drove three runs in with a double to jumpstart a four-run inning.

“At the plate I felt very relaxed,” Thompson said. “I had to calm myself from getting way to excited swinging out of my shoes. I stayed short to the ball, pulled it through and helped my team.”

Monrovia all game long had no answer for O’Leary. Aside from the poor performance at the plate, things weren’t much better off defensively for Monrovia. A number of bad throws and fly balls that weren’t called off extended rallies for the Spartans..

“We came out today and made some mistakes that we normally don’t do,” Monrovia coach Randy Medina said. “O’Leary was on, and Cox as well. Our hitters all game didn’t make the adjustments in a timely manner. When we gave up those runs in the first inning, it took a lot of wind off our sail.”

Nikki Guzman had the lone hit for Monrovia.

As the Spartans face South Pasadena, the Wildcats have a pivotal game against Temple City this Friday on the road at 3:30 p.m. The Rams lost both games to San Marino this week, setting up a crucial matchup for third place.

“We have a day before Temple City, and working on situations is our main focus,” Medina said. “Today we responded to situations on plays we don’t make. We made some poor choices on our throws, positioning, and it cost us and made us look not very sharp. We need to look as sharp and aggressive as ever, a strong batting mentality, and great plays on both sides.”