By Charlyne Nguyen
The Lady Barons softball fell short against the Newport Harbor Sailors with a score of 4-5 during Tuesday’s game.
The Sailors started off strong with their first hitter hitting far left and running a triple in the first inning.
The Barons made attempts to get some of Newport’s runners out at second and third but weren’t able to execute the passes quickly enough to get the Sailors out in the second inning, making the eventual score of that inning 0-3.
Great plays on defense were made by sophomore Veronica Moore whose quick reflexes in the sixth inning allowed her to catch a ball headed straight towards first base during the sixth inning.
Sophomore Abby Hasty also secured her team with some outs thanks to her midair catches in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Senior Avery Austin was also able to hit a line drive that secured her the second base. Austin was even able to steal third base in the third inning.
Home runs were made by seniors CJ Garcia and Brooke Pace in the sixth inning, making the score 4-5.
“I think overall we did really [well] by coming together as a team, and we really put [up] a fight, but we could’ve been more productive in the top of the innings,” Garcia said.
Despite the leverage the Barons had in the seventh inning thanks to Garcia and Pace’s home runs from the sixth inning, the Barons weren’t able to secure their team the victory because of the lack of ground ball hits in the seventh inning.
“We didn’t execute when we needed to; we just need to be more aggressive,” assistant head coach Kamberly Bigler said. “We need to hit the ball on the ground; we need to stop hitting the ball in the air, and we’re capable of doing that.”
The Sailors were able to catch many of the Barons’ hits in the seventh inning, securing the Sailors their victory.
