East Mountain’s softball team cruising after recent blowout wins

East Mountain’s softball players were noticeably elated after their April 11 mercy-rule win at home.

The victory over the visiting Highland Lady Hornets was exceptionally sweet for Aubrie Marez. “This is the happiest day of my life,” Marez said to her teammates as they walked off the field. “My entire life was just leading up to that one point.”

Marez was referring to her three-rbi home run in the first inning of the Lady Timberwolves’ 17- 2 rout. The game ended after three innings on the 15-run mercy rule.

East Mountain’s offense exploded for 13 runs in the first inning as 18 batters came to the plate.

Marez scored the game’s first run on a passed ball. While she was batting for the second time in the first inning, Marez blasted her first-ever home run—a deep drive into the forest behind right field.

“I mean, it felt pretty good,” Marez said. “It felt good to just get ahead, it was one of the best innings we’ve played.”

Olivia Ford had an inside-the-park home run and added an RBI double. Shyann Moorhead chipped in a two-rbi base hit and scored on Marez’ blast. The T’wolves also benefited from three bases on balls and two batters who were hit by pitches.

In the second inning, Marez tripled and later scored, and Ashlynne Lucero’s two-out base hit drove in Abby Moore to pad East Mountain’s lead to 15-0.

East Mountain’s defense—behind Cami Jo Radosevich’s pitching—held Highland scoreless for the first two innings, but the Hornets scored a pair of runs in the top of the third to cut the margin to 15-2 and keep the game going.

In the home half of the third, Marez hit a shallow pop fly that dropped between a pair of Highland fielders and Moorhead scored. Then with Marez on third base, Cashia Simkins smacked a base hit to drive in Marez for the gameending run.

“I was a little nervous, but I just got up there and tried to clear my head,” Simkins said about her first-ever walk-off RBI. “It felt good, I was happy.”

“It was awesome,” East Mountain head coach Bill Radosevich added. “They came out with a lot of confidence swinging the bat, putting the ball in play, making things happen.”

Due to a scheduling change, East Mountain faced Highland again—this time in Albuquerque—on April 13 and the Lady T’wolves pounded the Hornets even harder.

Ford pitched all three innings, striking out seven Highland batters while giving up just one-hit in the 24-0 blowout. She also drove in three runs. The game ended after the third inning on the 15-run mercy rule.

The win was East Mountain’s seventh in a row and improved the T’wolves’ record to 15-3.

“The girls are doing good,” coach Radosevich said. “They’re hitting good— hitting’s kinda the key—they’re making plays when they need to, they’re a great group of girls.”

Radosevich said East Mountain’s big test comes on April 19 when the T’wolves take on district rival Dexter, the 3A defending state champion.

“Dexter’s gonna be tough,” Radosevich said. “These games are good because they’ll give us a lot of confidence going into that game—all of this is leading to that.”