Normally, a softball or baseball team losing a game in a 10-run rule, shutout loss in five innings would be nothing to write home about. However, Tuesday’s 10-0 loss for the Santa Clara Bruins was easily one of the more impressive performances in such fashion for two key reasons. One being their opponent—the Palo Alto Vikings—came into the game having scored 64 runs in five league games while having exactly zero runs scored against them. The Bruins clearly aren’t the only team to have been shut out by Palo Alto this season. Furthermore, Santa Clara was without arguably its top two players for this one, with captain Jazzy Ramirez and leadoff hitter Victoria Calvillo unavailable.
Despite missing the two key cogs, Santa Clara still managed to threaten the Vikings with runners in scoring position in multiple innings. Leading the way with incredibly impressive at-bats off the Vikings’ ace pitcher were sophomore Rylan Morales and senior Cita Chavez. Morales had the at-bat of the game for the Bruins. In the second inning, Morales fought off some serious cheddar cheese from the Vikings’ hard-throwing ace. She eventually worked a full count and saw at least eight pitches before getting a changeup she could hammer into the 5.5 hole for a solid single.
Chavez had a similar strong plate appearance in the fourth for Santa Clara. After getting deep into the count, Chavez laced a hard one-hopper off the pitcher’s glove that would have likely jetted into center field had it not been deflected. She then beat out the throw from the second baseman. Chavez then proceeded to steal second and Morales followed with a walk, giving the Bruins first and second with only one out.
“Rylan is one of our strongest hitters for sure,” chimed Chavez on her teammate’s performance off the Vikings’ ace. “She has really quick hands; she knows how to read the ball amazingly well. She was prepared, she’s really confident.”
“Cita is a key piece on this team; she’s definitely one of the loudest players I have ever played with,” chuckled Morales. “She really pulls the team together and makes sure everybody is still up with energy when we may have a moment where we are down.”
Head Coach Julie Kawamoto has her squad still sounding upbeat even after the loss. The sentiment after the game, talking with the coach and players, is that they are eager to get another shot at the Vikings later on this season at their home diamond.
“Yes, most definitely,” responded Chavez on if the score could have been much closer with a full squad. “If we had Jazzy, who is one of our biggest hitters, always hitting home runs, if we had her and Vic in the lineup, I think we could have had a different outcome in this game for sure.”
“The girls are already saying like ‘we get to play them at our field next time’ and ‘we’ll have our top two players, and we will have seen her [the Vikings ace] once,” noted Kawamoto. “We’ll just do whatever we can the next time to push some runs across.”
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