A stellar offense led by line drives and outfield sinkers powered the Bear Cubs softball team to a triumphant 22-13 victory over Napa Valley College on Feb. 28 at SRJC.
The lopsided score invoked the eight-run mercy rule, ending the game early. According to conference regulations, a team winning by more than eight runs by the sixth inning takes the win.
Outstanding batting was obvious in the game, which was most likely a result of the team’s three-and-half-hour batting practice head coach Phil Wright Jr. assigned prior to the mid-week game.
“Hitting was on top because we worked on it all week very well,” Third basemen Oriana Poueu said. Poueu went 4-for-5 against NVC. The team “came back on top,” especially after the Bear Cubs scored seven runs in the third inning to counter attack Napa Valley’s five runs in the second inning, Poueu said.
Both Poueu and Chase give the game’s MVP award to Sunny Marrone for her outstanding performance in the outfield and her game-ending, two RBI drive past the NVC’s short stop.
It’s no doubt, you can’t put out their fire when the Bear Cubs get in a hitting streak or offensive rally. They have dominated four of their games with 14 plus runs. Their last home game they racked in 22 runs with potential to score more if the game didn’t end early due to the mercy rule.
With a 13 run lead over the trailing teams, the Bear Cubs have the most runs in the conference with 109 and counting. Samantha Bartee not only leads the team with RBIs but leads the entire conference with 26 RBIs.
Teammates Keeley Ray and Kayla Lowe are close to topping Big 8 Conference charts with their batting averages. Ray is batting .517 with one homerun, two triples, six stolen bases and 13 RBIs. In 18 games and 49 at-bats, Lowe is batting .531, leading her team and adding to their third-place batting ranking in the Big 8 Conference.
Saturday the team played their conference opener at SRJC in front of fan packed bleachers. The Bear Cubs hit a brick wall in the doubleheader versus top-ranked Sierra College, who stopped the Bear Cubs dead in their tracks, crushing them 21-0 and 10-0.
The Bear Cubs were matched up with a team that is ranked No. 3 in the state and has outscored their opponents 187-60, while the Bear Cubs have scored 151 runs and allowed 163.
The Bear Cubs played with composure and put out a solid effort, diving for ground balls and playing focused softball. The powerhouse offense and lights out pitching of Sierra was too much to overcome. Due to the one-sided score of both games of the doubleheader, the mercy rule stopped each game after five innings.
Head coach Phil Wright took over the softball team in August of last year and is looking to rebuild the program through focusing not only on coaching the fundamentals of the game but also mental aspects of team softball. “They haven’t won here in a lot of years, its not only that you got to teach them softball, but you got to teach them how to win,” Wright said. “You got to teach them to have pride in themselves, and to compete and to have discipline, we work on five points of success, and the biggest thing is you got to have team chemistry.”
Outfielder Keely Ray is one of the Bear Cubs top players is former Sonoma High School. Ray is team captain and was one of the best players in the Redwood Empire. Ray is a transfer student from MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas.
Despite the tough losses the Bear Cubs are excited now that the conference schedule has started and will look to prove they are going to be competitive in the Big 8 Conference. “We’re going to learn from this game and improve on our hitting,” Keeley said. “People should come watch us, we have a different group of girls this year and we have a good team.”
