The Mesa Olympians softball team has been on something of a tear this season, and their 24-10 record more than speaks for itself, along with being 10-3 in conference play and 15-3 at home.
After an impressive six-game winning streak, the Mesa Olympian softball team fell in two straight. But they managed to make things right when they sent the San Bernardino Valley Wolverines back to their den, 16-0. The game started off slow, but then broke open in the second inning, then the home team finished it off in the third with a deluge of scores.
The first inning started off slow with no points, then Mesa broke the stalemate late in it with a two-run home run, followed by a single. In the second, they scored a triple home run, and it was on; they scored again and again after that to make it 16-0 in the third inning. The score was maintained going into the fourth and fifth, and would be the final. .As the team was making their way out of the bench to start the second half of the fourth, coach Jaclyn Guidi urged them on: “C’mon, team! The game’s not over!” That being said, it was over after the score was 6-0. All throughout the game, Mesa’s defense was all over San Bernardino Valley’s offense, preventing any effective base running or hitting.
The win served as a harbinger of what was to come: During the month of March, the team lost only five games, most of which were in the later days and including three of the last four: Palomar on the 27th, 12-0, and a doubleheader against Canyons, 11-10 and 8-0, the sole outlier being the rematch against the Wolverines, 11-0. Between losses on March 9 against Pasadena City and March 25 against Southwestern, the Olympians won their six home games, including a pair of doubleheaders, by a combined score of 52-18. The rematch against San Bernardino Valley also featured excellent play by Mesa, where the game remained 5-0 into the fifth inning, and then Mesa breaking it loose thereafter. Also, freshman pitcher Karli Ramsey threw a no-hitter against Ventura during the six-game winning streak to beat them 8-0, and was key in the shutout on March 29 against the Wolverines. It’s worth noting that the two shutouts against San Bernardino Valley are two of five shutouts the Olympians have pitched this season.
The team will take on Grossmont on April 12, in the first of three games on the road, with the remaining two at Imperial Valley and Rio Hondo, before finishing the regular season against Mt. San Jacinto on April 23. As of now, freshman Kaleigh Lane has hit eight of the team’s 18 home runs, 13 stolen bases, 45 runs batted in, and holds a .485 batting average (the team is .356 overall.) Ramsey has won eight games pitching, and holds 46 strikeouts to her name.
