Bryson mashing young Patriots into a GEL contender
While the rain and postponements last week limited the Pioneer High School varsity softball team to only two games instead of three, that didn’t stop freshman Marisa Bryson from smashing nearly every pitch she saw.
“This past week, every time Marisa came up to bat, I think she expected to get a hit,” said Pioneer head softball coach Linda Merrida. “Even if she doesn’t get a hit, it ends up as a loud at bat.”
Before the games this previous week, Bryson shined against crosstown rivals Woodland High School on March 24. In that game, an 11-1 six-inning game due to the 10-run mercy rule, Bryson had three hits in four plate appearances, knocking in two runs and scoring a run.
That game set the table for her fantastic week, which began on Monday, March 27, at home against Mira
Loma before the rain wiped out three midweek days. In that five-inning game,
Bryson led the way in a 24-0 win with three hits in five plate appearances.
With those hits,
Byrson did some damage racking up an absurd nine RBIs while scoring four runs herself, with one of those runs being a towering grand slam.
“That game was difficult to gauge because the Mira Loma pitcher wasn’t really a pitcher, so she had to pick and choose what pitches she’d attack,” Merrida said. “When she picked the right pitch, she hit it out of the park.”
In her second game of the week, a much closer 6-2 win over non-league opponent Del Oro, Bryson narrowly missed her second grand slam when she hit a ball just foul down the left field line.
In that same at-bat, however, she made less contact but inflicted more damage with a single that scored two runs. Before that, she had a two-run double in the fifth inning when the score was tied up at 0-0.
She finished the game with two hits, four RBIs, and a run scored.
According to MaxPreps, as of Monday, Bryson is top five among all CIF Sac Joaquin Section players in major batting categories, including RBI (24), home runs (4) and runs scored (18). She also boasts a top 15 slugging percentage at 1.267.
According to Merrida, Bryson is also no slouch with the glove either at shortstop, one of the most challenging positions to field.
“She is doing really well as our shortstop,” Merrida said. “She fields most of the balls that come to her. I see a lot of improvement in her throughout the season, especially when we play competitive teams. Some key plays, including a double play ball came straight to her, and she did really well.”
Bryson, along with fellow first-year players Gracie McGinty, Kylie Cueva, Sofia Castro, Caitlin Mayfield, Zayda Rodriguez and Sophia O’Quelly, have made quite
a splash in their debuts this season on a team that already featured a ton of young talent.
With only one senior on the team in Jordan Thorpe, the Patriots figure to be around the top of the league standings for this season and future years to come.
“We have a very young team but if they are all close to as talented as Bryson is, we’ll be contending,” Merrida said. “I’m excited having Marisa and the other six freshmen on the team.
We have a very strong group that pairs up very well with our sophomores. The more they all play, and practice will lead to them being very dominant over the next few years.”