Costa Mesa softball tested by rival Estancia
The Battle for the Bell hasn’t been much of a battle in softball lately, with Costa Mesa ringing up six mercy-rule triumphs over four seasons while dominating Estancia by a 127-33 scoreline in seven successive wins.
That made the Mustangs’ 4-3 road victory Wednesday afternoon, on its surface, quite the surprise. It might instead be the reignition of the crosstown rivalry.
Jaidyn Soldin outdueled Jaydin McClure from the circle as Costa Mesa surged ahead in the fifth inning and held on to make it eight in a row, getting the final out on a play at the plate, and setting up a showdown Friday with Santa Ana Calvary Chapel.
Freshman shortstop Isabella Gonzalez played catalyst for the Mustangs (9-1, 3-0 in the Orange Coast League), reaching base four times, stealing three bases, twice taking advantage of miscues to take extra bases, getting to third three times — scoring just once, alas — and throwing home on a broken play at the finish to secure the triumph.
It didn’t end as Estancia hoped, but the Eagles (4-4, 1-2) made it clear they’re not the team of the past few years. That’s the doing of first-time head coach Taise Thompson, whose aim isn’t merely competing with Costa Mesa. Hired in November, she’s out to create a winning culture for a program that had won just 21 of 61 games since its last winning season five years ago.
“Collectively, I couldn’t have asked for a better day. I couldn’t have,” said Thompson, who was an assistant coach at Rio Mesa in Oxnard, her alma mater, after playing collegiately at Bradley. “And the girls feel it. They feel like a unit. They feel the change coming, they feel the culture, and they’re excited about it. Everybody else here is, too.”
It’s happening in fits and stops and is embodied by McClure, a sophomore right-hander who has taken massive strides this season and often dominated a Mustangs lineup that had averaged 16.3 runs while reaching double digits in each of their previous victories. She struck out 14, kept Costa Mesa to 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position, 1 for 9 with two outs, and 0 for 15 with two strikes.
McClure also struggled to find the plate in stretches, walking six and hitting another batter. She threw 10 successive balls at one point in the second and nine of 10 in the fifth, walking home runs in both innings. Defense was at times a hindrance — Costa Mesa’s first run was unearned, after Gonzalez stretched a leadoff single to two bases when the ball was misplayed in shallow right field — and Gonzalez’s aggressiveness on the basepaths tested the Eagles.
“Estancia brought it today,” Costa Mesa head coach Heather Orduña said. “Their pitcher-catcher duo was very impressive. They definitely took advantage of our lack at the plate. We need to put the ball in play. We’ve been working on it, two-strike hitters trying to put the ball in play, and we did not do that today. They definitely capitalized on that. And they put pressure on us all the way until that last nail-biter play in the bottom of the seventh.”
The Mustangs left 13 on base, eight in scoring position, with the bases loaded to close their second- and fifth-inning at-bats. They managed seven hits, two each by Gonzalez, catcher Reygan Schneider and third baseman Sydnie Pulido.
They went ahead in the top of the first, then added a second run in the second. Gonzalez started the game with a single and advanced to second on an error. McClure struck out two batters — Gonzalez stealing third with one out — and then Schneider followed with Costa Mesa’s only two-out hit, a slap single up the middle to bring Gonzalez home.
Gonzalez has been a force in her first season. She’s batting .738, has an .800 on-base percentage, is slugging 1.158 and has stolen 22 bases in 10 games.
“Izzy’s been a game-changer for our team this year ... and regardless of age, she is a leader on our team,” Orduña said. “There’s a reason she’s at the top of our lineup. We can rely on her to get the momentum moving in our favor.”
Alyssa Ochoa singled to left to lead off the next inning, got to third on a walk and a passed ball, then came home after McClure walked two more with two out, the run batted in going to Annalee Mendoza.
Estancia totaled 10 hits, three by Peyton Thomas and two each by Mikaila Gorey and Heather Fultz, and took the lead with runs in the second, third and fourth innings. Thomas scored the first, singling to left, taking second on a passed ball and third on a ground out, then coming home on Shyane Leslie’s two-out single up the middle, between Soldin’s legs.
Gorey plated the second run, starting the third with an infield single, going to second on Alondra Galvez’s single to right, then scoring on Thomas’ bloop, one-out single to center. The Eagles went ahead when Fultz singled to left with one out in the fourth, got to second on a passed ball, and scored on Devoni Bustos’ double to right center. Bustos tried to stretch it to a triple, but Gonzalez took the relay and threw her out at third.
Costa Mesa took command in the fifth, when it sent eight batters to the plate. Schneider walked on four pitches to start it off, went to third on a single by Pulido, who took second on the throw to third, and beat the throw home when Soldin followed with a grounder to Gorey, the third baseman.
A one-out walk to Caidlyn Lowry loaded the bases, and a two-out walk to Gonzalez restored the Mustangs’ lead. Costa Mesa got runners to third but couldn’t score in the sixth and seventh innings, and it was left to Soldin, pitching “one of her strongest games of the season,” Orduña said, to close things out. Soldin, a junior right-hander, was sharp all afternoon, throwing 71 strikes on 93 pitches and first-pitch strikes to 26 of 32 batters.
“She fought really hard,” Orduña said. “We haven’t had a lot of games where the score is tight ... and she was a bulldog on the mound today.”
She quickly retired the first two batters, Galvez and McClure, on ground outs, but Thomas drilled a line-drive double to second base. Then a couple of mistakes, one by each team, produced a fiery finish.
K.J. Bishop’s roller to the left of the mound was bobbled by Soldin and then Pulido, and Thomas rounded third, advancing a bit farther toward the plate than she’d meant to. As Gonzalez picked up the ball, she looked back at the base, then took off for home. The throw to Schneider had her out by several feet.
“I saw a basic pickle play ...,” Gonzalez said. “I throw the ball in time, and she was out, and I was very happy about that. It could have gone very badly if she were safe.”
Thompson called it a “miscommunication” and blamed herself.
“I told [Thomas], ‘You’re running no matter what. On any ball, I’m not stopping you,’” Thompson said. “[What] I should have said was on a ball to the outfield, you’re not stopping. Ball to the infield, you’ve got to get on the bag.
“More practice, more reps, it will come in time.”
It will all come in time.
“We’re building a dynasty,” she said. “We are coming for this league, and I think people are starting to realize that. And the girls are starting to realize that, too. We are a force to be reckoned with, and I just want them to realize that and believe it. Now they’re starting to believe it, and I want them to make it a reality. ... If we all buy in, which they are, there’s nothing that can stop us. And we’re coming. Give us one, two years, and we’re there.”
Costa Mesa now comes home for its fiercest regular-season challenge. Calvary Chapel (4-8, 3-0) has won all 32 meetings since both schools were placed into the Orange Coast League before the 2007 season, and only four of them have been close. The private school has won 34 straight league games, 10 of the last 13 titles and is 120-7 in league play from 2009 on. Costa Mesa hasn’t lost a league game to another opponent since 2018.
“Our goal is to play good team softball and to focus on what we can do well,” Orduña said. “If we can do that, we’ll take a win, we’ll take a loss. If we can give our best effort to them, we’ll do the best we can.”
Said Gonzalez: “I think we can play the best we can play and really stay to our best, do what we can. If we do that and play as a team, we’ll be fine.”
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