Prep Girls Softball: Titans get back on track with 5-3 win over RBV
Jim Bennet did not recognize the team that showed up in Monday’s Cougar Classic semifinal game against Rancho Buena Vista. But the Poway High softball coach knows very well the team that came to play Wednesday.
The Titans rebounded from a four-error, 9-1 loss to RBV Monday with a flawless defensive effort against the Longhorns Wednesday en route to a 5-3 North County Tournament game victory.
Poway turned one double play and threw out two runners at the plate to win its home opener and hand the Longhorns (7-1) their first loss of the year. That effort combined with Cal-bound senior Kourtney Shaw’s in the circle was enough for the Titans (5-1) to win their fifth game.
“We didn’t play well Monday and we wanted to come out here and play the game we know we can play,” Bennet said. “We wanted to play a clean game and get back to the way we play.”
Arizona-bound junior Malia Martinez smacked her second home run of the year and Samantha Johnson-Needham drove in two runs to pace Poway’s potent offense, which has scored a whopping 64 runs in just six games.
“Our offense is really fun to watch,” Bennet said. “And 99 games out of 100 our defense is fun to watch, too.”
Shaw faced the minimum through the first three innings thanks to a double play she turned off a line drive back to her in the third and Catherine Seitz’s perfect throw to second to gun down a runner trying to steal in the first.
Shaw finished allowing just seven hits and striking out five. The Longhorns had the tying run on first with two outs in the seventh, but Shaw got a ground out to end the game.
“This was a really good win for us,” Bennet said. “Rancho Buena Vista is a really good team. That was a great comeback they had their at the end. I thought they fought really hard and played well.”
An RBI double by Seitz in the first scored Dana Stewart, who singled earlier in the inning, to make it 1-0. The Titans took a 2-0 lead on Martinez’s solo home run to deep center field in the third inning.
Poway tacked on three more in the fifth to take a 5-0 lead. Johnson-Needham stroked a two-run single and Colleen Sullivan’s walk with the bases loaded brought in another run.
The Longhorns rallied for three runs in the sixth inning, all with two outs, to make it 5-3. Falepolima Aviu, the top hitter in the county, then came up as the tying run in the seventh with two outs. Poway elected to intentionally walk her and bring the winning run up to bat. The strategy worked as Shaw induced the ground out.