Grizzlies rout Estancia
An infusion of young talent has impressed this spring for the Godinez High softball team.
Six of the Grizzlies’ nine starters against Estancia on Tuesday in an Orange Coast League showdown were freshmen. But you wouldn’t know it with their play on the field.
Several of the freshmen had big hits. The one in the circle, Airilin Ramirez, stopped the host Eagles from getting any.
Ramirez threw a two-hitter as Godinez beat Estancia, 18-0, in a five-inning game. The Grizzlies (13-6, 5-0 in league) are now alone in first place halfway through league play.
Estancia (8-9, 4-1 in league) had come into the game tied for the top spot. Now the Eagles are behind Godinez, which is seeking its first league title in program history, which dates to 2009.
Godinez has finished in third place in league for three straight years, with Calvary Chapel winning it every time. This year, Calvary Chapel, the seven-time defending Orange Coast League champion, currently sits in third place at 3-2 in league.
Godinez Coach Ed Medina gave Estancia, which beat Calvary on April 14 to end Calvary’s 67-game league winning streak, credit for showing the league that Calvary could be beat this year. But the same may not be true about Godinez.
“I think we’re all stepping up,” said Godinez Coach Ed Medina, who has coached the Grizzlies since the school opened. “Once you’re the bridesmaid, you want to be the bride now and then. My girls are excited. We just happened to get a great freshman class come in, and they’ve done a great job. That’s the key to this whole thing, who you get coming in and how much work they’ve already put in. That makes your job so much easier. It’s been great.”
Ramirez allowed just the two hits, a one-out single to Estancia sophomore Emily Kubisty in the fourth inning and a two-out single to pinch-hitter Carol Fuentes in the fifth. Other than that, it was all Grizzlies.
Godinez scored twice in the top of the first and four more runs in the second before Estancia sophomore pitcher Brittany Walker thought she had ended the damage by inducing Godinez freshman Iyari Ramirez to fly out to center. Estancia senior Maya Van Den Heever grabbed the ball for the third out, and the Eagles started going toward the dugout.
Not so fast. The umpire called Walker for an illegal pitch, and play continued. Godinez would score seven more runs in the inning, bringing 14 total batters to the plate.
“[Walker] said, ‘After that, all I could think about was my foot,’” Estancia Coach Carrie Lester said. “She lost focus on everything else, and they hit. That was unfortunate. [He called it] after Maya made the catch, the third out, we’re ready to go in. People said she was doing it before that, and it’s like, ‘Well, why didn’t he call it before that?’ She probably did it, but it was so badly timed. Right after the third out?”
Godinez freshman Samantha Villanueva, who finished with three runs batted in, had one of her two doubles in the inning. She nearly finished five for five, but Van Den Heever had a nice running backhand catch on Villanueva’s smash to deep center in the fifth.
Freshman shortstop Keana Pola also was a leader for Godinez, going three for four with a double and four RBIs. Leadoff hitter Leslie Lopez, one of two senior starters, had two hits, two RBIs and three runs scored.
No team in league so far has lost to the Grizzlies by less than 10 runs.
“They’ve been second place behind Calvary Chapel for years, and this year they’re not taking it anymore,” Lester said. “I mean, they’re just a great team and probably the best team in our league. Definitely, they are the best team. So hat’s off to them ... Competition makes us all try harder to improve our game, and that’s a good thing.”
Kubisty came in to pitch in the third for just one inning, before Walker re-entered in the fourth. She allowed just one run in the final two innings.
Offensively, the Eagles had few hard hits against Airilin Ramirez, who struck out four.
“I think we kind of went into it nervous,” said Kubisty, a co-captain for Estancia along with senior shortstop Felicia Rios. “I mean, we knew that they ‘mercied’ Calvary and Mesa. We were all a little bit nervous, but everyone was excited. I think it was the pitching. Once we saw how fast she was, we kind of got nervous. We couldn’t really get the pitcher’s number. But we didn’t give up at all. We tried, we had good at-bats and stuff. We just don’t really face fast pitching, and that was hard.”
Kubisty, though, was unwilling to concede anything to Godinez. The teams play for the second time in league at the Grizzlies’ field on May 12, the final game of the regular season.
“I’m really excited about the rest of the season,” Kubisty said. “I think we can get first, if we keep working hard. Obviously, our hardest opponent is going to be Godinez. That was a pretty bad game, but I don’t think it’s impossible for us to beat them if we work on hitting quicker pitches. If we start to hit against Godinez, I think we can be first in league.”
Estancia plays at Saddleback on Thursday.
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Orange Coast League
Godinez 18, Estancia 0 (five innings)
SCORE BY INNINGS
Godinez 2(10)5 10 – 18 12 0
Estancia 000 00 – 0 2 6
A. Ramirez and I. Ramirez; Walker, Kubisty (3), Walker (4) and Shepherd. W – A. Ramirez. L – Walker. 2B – Villanueva (G) 2, Pola (G).
