The Sunny Hills Lady Lancers are off to a strong start to the Freeway League season after defeating Fullerton 10-0 in five innings.
Junior Mariah Ramirez (7-1) turned in a dominant pitching performance for the Lady Lancers.
The junior only allowed three hits in what ended up being a complete game shutout performance.
From the first inning Ramirez set the tone for the day pitching wise by striking out two out of three of the first batters she faced.
The Lady Lancers began what became a big offensive day at the plate in the bottom of the opening inning. Junior Taylor Okada started off the Lady Lancers hitting efforts with a double and scored the first run of the game when a hit by senior Molly Grumbo could not be controlled in time by pitcher Ceci Lopez to throw Okada out at home. .
After three quick outs by Ramirez in the top of the inning, the Lady Lancers (10-6, 1-0) pulled away in the bottom of the second inning.
Like in the first inning, Grumbo was offensively involved in the second inning.
The senior catcher stepped up for Sunny Hills with the bases loaded and hit a double to deep center field to drive in three runs and make it 4-0.
Ramirez was not only getting it done for Sunny Hills in the circle, but also at the plate. Immediately following Grumbo’s big hit the junior powered a pitch over the right field fence to make it 6-0.
The Lady Lancers five run inning ended the seniors day pitching wise and Alexia Silvas came in to try and cool down the Lady Lancers bats.
The Lady Indians(8-9, 0-1) could not muster a response to Lady Lancers Big inning, instead Ramirez added two more strikeouts to her tally in the top of the third inning to help keep the Lady Indians scoreless.
Though Silvas was able to end the Lady Lancers big second inning, Sunny Hills further extended their lead in the bottom of the third inning.
A mishandled groundball allowed Isabel Pena to score to make it 7-0 and moments later Grumbo made another big play at the plate for the Lady Lancers.
The senior, who ended the game with 7 RBI, extended the Lady Lancers lead into double digits when she hit a pitch out of the park to make it 10-0.
“Mollys been hitting the ball well, so has momo,” and “Each of them had some nice home runs,” said Sunny Hills Manager Arthur Jarman on two of teams top contributors in the game.
Following the end of the third inning, both teams were quiet offensively in the fourth inning.
In the top of the fifth inning Ramirez topped off her shutout performance with her fifth strikeout of the day to end the game early on the mercy rule.
“This was a case of us not executing, we didn’t get the job done,” said Fullerton Manager Michael Takkinen, and later noted Ramirez role in keeping them scoreless.
“The kids were energized that’s what I like to see, good defense, good pitching, good
hitting. That wins ball games all the time,” Jarman said about the Lady Lancers win.
Sunny Hills will next see the field when they visit Troy on Thursday to take on the Warriors. Fullerton visits Buena Park on Thursday to square off with the Coyotes.