Monache softball comes back to beat PHS

With a nice breeze accompanying them, the softball teams from Porterville High and Monache came together to play a league game at the Monache diamond on Wednesday. The Marauders were looking at an overall record of 12-7 and the Panthers were 8-10. Monache back back to beat PHS 5-4.

Marauder Morgan Hunter pitched all seven innings with Panthers Maryann Fuentes and Klarissa Manrriquez taking one and six innings each. The Panthers Trinity Avila, Sierra Mendoza, Manrriquez, and Greenley Wilson earned their team’s runs. Along with the Marauders Rivas Arianna, who scored twice, Hunter, Jessica Batres, and Pricila Valencia scored runs for the Marauders.

The first inning started off with Marauder pitcher Hunter striking out a Panther looking. The Marauders had a better first time at bat with Manrriquez throwing some fire for the Panthers. A huge hit from Arianna sent the Panthers sprawling and let her run to home for Monache’s first run of the game.

The second inning had a run in for the Panthers with Manrriquez reaching on an error and scoring to tie the game 1-1 Into the third inning, the Panthers hit a stride. With the Marauders on a back foot after almost every Panther took a turn swinging.

First up was Wilson, who walked and stole second. Jennilu Martinez was next up and brought Wylie home.

Avila took two strikes and a ball before reaching first. Sierra Mendoza followed, and after three balls and a strike, she landed a devastating hit to the outfield. Mendoza and Avila took second and third after the good hit. Abigail Smith had a long time up, letting three balls slide while having two foul hits.

She was against the wall when she nailed a shot to bring in both Mendoza and Avila.

Now with the lead 4-1, the Panthers took to the field to defend against the Marauders. It seemed hard for Monache though as the girls were outed one after the other. A hit to the morale of the team seemed certain.

However, during the fourth inning it seemed the Marauders rallied. Batres took to bat first for the Marauders going into the bottom of the fourth. Taking no time, Batres just walked up to the plate and hammered the ball into left field to take first base. Loflin Bryton followed and while her first pitch was a strike, Batres stole second. Bryton advanced Batres to third

Batres and Valencia eventually scored for the Marauders to make it 4-3. While the fourth ended the bottom of the fifth carried the Marauders to win. Arianna had an awesome hit, reaching third, while Hunter was right behind to bring her in tying the game 4-4. The final margin for the Marauders came with Bryton landing a solid hit into the outfield bringing Hunter in, making the game 5-4. The last two innings went with neither team earning another run, ending the game for the Marauders 5-4.

“We came back, the Panthers are tough, really tough, but we did it,” Monache coach Dave Koontz said “Our offense was great, we hit the ball hard and kept our routine up. With our pitcher (Morgan) Hunter taking down quite a few she really stuck it out.

Anytime we play with another hometown team it’s big for us. We still treat it with fun but we wanted to do well. We had good defense as well, with (Sid) Barrios and (Pricila) Valencia catching quite a few outs for us. We did what we had to and it paid off in a win for us.”