Walk-off win
Walk it off why don’t you, Molly Mulvaney.
The Porterville High School senior drove in the winning run in the Panthers’ 9-8 win over the Hawks of Mission Oak in Wednesday’s East Yosemite League home-opener as her softball teammates, coaches and fans celebrated the victory.
Walk it off why don’t you, Molly Mulvaney.
The Porterville High School senior drove in the winning run in the Panthers’ 9-8 victory over the Hawks of Mission Oak as her softball teammates, coaches and fans celebrated in Wednesday’s East Yosemite League home-opener.
Up 7-4 in the top of the seventh inning, Porterville (11-5, 1-0 EYL) saw their lead begin to falter after an Rbi-single from MOHS Payton Quinonez brought the game within two runs. On the next at-bat, the Hawks (6-9, 0-1 EYL) scored three runs after the ball got past the infield and a bad throw home brought in the go-ahead run.
“I didn’t focus on the error, I focused on our half inning we had left with hitting,” PHS first-year head coach Jennifer Schoonover said. “I told them I was confident in our hitting. We have to go up there, someone’s got to step up, get on base. I said, ‘Be confident when you step into that box. Have some good pitch selection.’ Be the hitters that I know that they can be.”
Unfazed on her first plate appearance of the game and with one out, PHS sophomore and No. 9 hitter Myranda Ledesma drew a walk from MOHS reliever, Gianna Martorana. On the next atbat, senior Josie Rios shot to right field dropped in the middle of the Hawks’ right fielder, center fielder and second baseman. With the tying run at third, sophomore Cloey Loflin down the third baseline while Ledesma slid under the tag at home and moved Rios to third. Facing an 0-2 count, Mulvaney hit followed Loflin’s but bounced off the Hawks’ third baseman’s glove while Rios came home for the win.
“It’s a win,” Schoonover said. “The girls did great. I really tried to get them pumped up, get them excited. I keep telling them, ‘We’re a new team and every team in our league is a new team.’ But we’re a new team. Lot of excitement, a lot of positivity. A lot of confidence. And I think it really showed in today’s game and we had great senior leadership too. Seniors really stepped up.”
The top of the lineup, but especially the 3-4-5 hitters, hit well for the Panthers with lead off hitter Rios going 4-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Mulvaney batted third and went 4-for-5 with two RBIS and a run scored while cleanup batter senior Anissa Gomez was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIS and two runs scored. In the fifth spot, freshman Cienna Enriquez went 2-for-2 and drew two walks.
“They’re really getting the reps in this season that they need,” Schoonover said about Mulvaney and Gomez. “We worked a lot with Anissa, 1-to-1, trying to tweak a couple of things. Molly, another senior who came out. We really worked on her, she’s making really good contact with the ball and that’s what I try to emphasize with the girls is just put the ball in play and great things will happen.”
Rios also recorded the win on the mound after going all seven innings and allowing eight runs on 12 hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Schoonover said that while they warmed up another pitcher, she was confident with the “workhorse” Rios on the mound. Schonoover said, “She’s got great stamina. I felt confident in her with coming out, you know you always have to warm up another pitcher just in case but she finished strong.”
Porterville had a 1-0 lead after the first inning, but gave up three runs in the top of the second and one in the third to fall behind 4-1. The Panthers got two of those runs back in the third but a strong top of the fourth from Rios and the defense brought to life the Panthers’ bats for a four-run bottom of the fourth.
Porterville went 3-7 in EYL last season but if the excitement shown on the faces of Schoonover and the players is any indication of how the season will go, things are looking up for the Panthers. The team’s next game is a 4:30 p.m. game on Friday at Tulare Western (410, 1-0 EYL).
“I feel confident in the girls,” Schoonover said. “I’m always going to be confident in our strengths. Tomorrow we have another practice, we can work on a couple of our weaknesses that we always work on. We’re going to take it game by game. I’m a new coach so it’s going to be new for me to see what our league consists of — who’s our powerhouses, who’s not. So we’re going to go out there, play our game, be confident.”