ROHNERT PARK, CA – They won’t be crowning a softball champion in the North Bay League – Oak Division in this pandemic shortened season, but don’t tell that to the Rancho Cotate Cougars.
Facing a visiting Maria Carrillo-Santa Rosa team tied with them at 9-3 in action against NBL opposition, Rancho Cotate (10-3) got a total team effort in a 7-4 Tuesday afternoon victory that gives them a 1-game lead in their quest for an unofficial league championship with two games left to play.
It was the first game Nevada-bound senior Tatum Maytorena did not get a hit all season, but her teammates picked her up, particularly the junior battery mates, pitcher Kayla Dixon and catcher Hailey Wyatt.
Dixon gave up nine hits and three earned runs, but she also struck out nine, only walked one, and was able to pitch out of a couple of jams by making good pitches to help her defense and fanning batters with runners in scoring position.
Wyatt, who only had one hit in her previous two games and nine at-bats, was on base three times with two hits, three RBI and her pinch runner, freshman Kayla Mahnken, scored two of the three times Wyatt got aboard.
“Yes they did,” said Rancho Cotate head coach Tracey Poueu-Guerrero when asked about her pitcher and catcher coming through with Maytorena not being the usual big contributor. “The spots were hit and the misses worked in our favor. Kayla threw first strikes 80-percent of the time and that led to good things for us defensively.”
“And Hailey got some timely hits with runners on base,” Poueu-Guerrero continued. “Even with two outs she came through.”
Rancho Cotate put a three-spot on the board in the bottom of the first inning and never trailed from there. Freshman leadoff batter Kailey Yahya singled followed by a single by junior Tiare Guerrero. Maytorena was hit by a pitch and up came Wyatt. Her sacrifice drove in the game’s first run. After a strikeout by Maria Carrillo senior pitcher Makena Goldbeck, the sophomore duo of Lexi Samson and Kylie Lopes each had RBI singles.
The Cougars extended the lead to 5-0 in the second after freshman Paige Vraneswich led off with a single followed by a walk to Yahya. A single by Wyatt plated both runners, but Carrillo still had some punch.
After retiring nine of the first 10 Pumas batters, Dixon gave up three runs in the fourth but with two runners on base she got a strikeout to retire the side to preserve a 5-3 lead.
Rancho Cotate answered back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI double by Dixon that plated pinch-runner Mahnken making it a 7-3 Cougars lead.
Carrillo (10-4) scored its final run in the fifth on an RBI double by sophomore Sascha Burk-Chavez, but Dixon got the final two batters in the inning on infield pop-ups.
Dixon worked out of trouble with a strikeout that stranded two runners in the sixth inning, and she stranded two more Pumas base-runners in the top of the seventh with a groundout that ended the ballgame.
Maytorena did score a run after walking in the bottom of the fourth, and she was on base three times, but even after going 0 for 1 she is still has the No. 2 reported batting average in the CIF North Coast Section and her .666 average is tops in the Redwood Empire portion of the section.
“I really needed my teammates in this game,” Maytorena said. “Carrillo always gives us a dogfight so before the game I told the team we needed to come out with energy and score early since in the past the team that scores first has won.”
Goldbeck had a couple of rough spots but she still ended up with seven strikeouts. At the plate she had a double that drove in two runs and she also scored a run on an RBI squeeze bunt by junior Ellie Jensen.
With the victory Rancho Cotate won the rubber match after splitting the first two games this season, a 10-9 win on the road and an 8-6 home loss.
Carrillo has two game left, on Thursday at Windsor and next Tuesday hosting Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa.
The Cougars have two games remaining as well, both on the road. They face Sebastopol Analy on Thursday and next Tuesday they close out the season at Windsor.
