Norco coach Robinson earns record victory as Cougars edge Chino Hills
NORCO » Norco High School softball coach Rick Robinson knew his 604th career win would not come easy.
The Cougars lost to Los Alamitos earlier in the week and were two outs away from suffering back-toback losses for the first time in five seasons. But Mya Perez changed everything with one swing of the bat Friday, as she hammered a two-run home run to the opposite field in bottom of the seventh inning to give Norco a 5-4 win over Chino Hills.
Perez’s walk-off shot moved Robinson into the top spot for career victories by an Inland area softball coach. Robinson surpassed JoAnn Byrd, who recorded 603 victories during her 28 seasons at Corona High School (1986-2013).
“It really means I’ve been doing this too long,” Robinson joked. “I’ve been spoiled to have as many great players as I have had in the program over the years. You coach them, but they are the ones getting it done on the field.”
Robinson said he probably would not be in this position without Byrd. He was Corona’s pitching coach in 1991 and 1992 when his sister Beth was the Panthers’ ace. Byrd convinced Robinson to finish his teaching credential. Robinson coached at Corona Centennial for five seasons (1994-98) and has been at Norco since 2000. He has led seven teams to section championships, a CIF Southern Section record for softball coaches.
Robinson never thought he would be in the coaching business this long, but Byrd is not surprised.
“He is a scholar of the game, and coaching is in his blood,” Byrd said by phone this week. “He has set very high standards for his program, and he’s not willing to bend them for anyone. That is something I respect from a coach.”
It appeared Robinson would have to wait another day to notch the record-setting win.
Chino Hills (0-2) grabbed the lead in the first inning as Payton Kelly launched a mammoth solo home run over the wall in left field. The Huskies doubled their lead in the top of second inning on an RBI single by Kaylin Garcia.
Norco (2-1) strung together four consecutive hits in the second to even the score. Delany Whieldon doubled in Alyssa Hovermale. Xiane Romero followed with a single to score Katie Terrazas.
The Cougars took the lead in the fourth inning as Romero tripled and scored on a single by Maddy Aguilera.
Chino Hills regained the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. Garcia scored on a single by Kayla Chavez, and Kelly ripped a double to deep center to bring home Chavez.
Matti Severns reached on an error with one out in the bottom of the seventh, setting the stage for Perez. Perez jumped on the first pitch, a screwball over the outer half of the plate, and sent it over the wall in left.
“I knew the pitch was going to be away,” said Perez, who popped out on a similar pitch in her previous at-bat in the fifth inning. “I knew by the way I hit the ball that I got enough of it.”
It was the second tough loss in a matter of days for Chino Hills, which started the season No. 1 in the MaxPreps.com national rankings. The Huskies lost to Anaheim Esperanza 3-2 in 10 innings Wednesday.
“It will show up as an ‘L’ in the record book, but I think we got better today,” Chino Hills coach Kim Ensey said. “We played more like a team today. But we needed to be perfect to win, and we weren’t perfect today.”