Sidewinders beat Criminals for 2nd straight year
Prior to last season, the San Luis softball team had never before beaten Yuma High — or any Yuma Union High School District opponent, for that matter.
Now, the Sidewinders have beaten the Criminals two years in a row.
The top of the Sidewinders’ order did damage all day long Tuesday as San Luis cruised to a 13-6 victory over Yuma High for the team’s first victory of the season.
“It feels awesome,” first-year coach Michael McChesney said. “When I came on board four years ago we were barely playing catch, and I always give a lot of credit to (former) coach (Greg) Laguna who built this program, but it honestly starts with the seniors this year.
“A lot of them are fouryear starters, so they know where we’ve been, and they come to practice every single
SL: 1-3 AIA YH: 1-5 AIA
day for four years, and they deserve all the credit for turning it around.”
Last year, Yuma High came from behind to win the teams’ first meeting 1211 before San Luis took the rematch 15-5.
Tuesday’s game followed a script far more similar to the second of last year’s two meetings.
The game was tied 4-4 after 3 1/2 innings before the Sidewinders (1-3 AIA) scored nine runs in their final three half innings offensively.
It was hitters No. 1-4 in the San Luis lineup that accounted for most of the offensive outburst, as leadoff hitter Nathaly Jimenez went 4-for-5, two-hole hitter Doraddy Pulido went 2-for4 with three RBIs, threehole hitter Katia Sandoval went 4-for-4 with four RBIs and cleanup hitter Bernie Jaime went 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Sandoval and Jaime, two of the team’s seniors, had back-to-back run-scoring doubles in a bottom of the fourth inning that saw San Luis turn a 4-4 tie into an 8-4 lead.
“If Doraddy, Katia and Bernie can hit, we can compete,” McChesney said.
“(San Luis had) a few key hits and they took advantage of errors that we had as well,” said Yuma High coach Dena DuBois, whose team dropped to 1-4 AIA with the loss. “They did exactly what they needed to do.”
Freshman Annette Juarez earned the complete-game victory for San Luis in the circle.
San Luis and Yuma High will meet again Thursday.