The Cupertino softball team routed Lynbrook 22-4 on Wednesday in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division game. Lynbrook was without its normal starting pitcher who is now academically inelgible. The Pioneers improved to 11-14 overall, 4-7 in the SCVAL-EC; the Vikings dropped to 3-11, 2-9.
Cupertino got run-scoring hits from Natalie Vigent and Leah Ramirez to get off to an early lead it never relinquished. Ariana Garcia added a towering two-run home run over the left field to make it 4-0.
The Pioneers continued their barrage by scoring six runs in the second, eight runs in the fourth, and three runs in the fifth.
Despite its pitching problems, Lynbrook kept plugging away, scoring twice in the first, on doubles by Laura Hatton and Theresa Parada and two in the third on big hits by Caity Prada and Theresa Prada.
“It's unfortunate that we lost our starting pitcher to grades, but we at least have girls who are willing to try the position out and do the best that they can. It's unfortunate especially for some of our seniors because we were finally really getting on a roll and they were finally starting to turn things around and do well, but then this happened," coach Stacey Benzing said. “It's kinda out of our control so we might as well have fun with the situation."
Cupertino scored enough to win comfortably but did not pour it on.
"We just tried to concentrate on our basics – on our hitting, on our fielding – because we knew going in that [Coach Benzing] just found out this morning that her starting pitcher was ineligible so that's a tough situation to be in," Cupertino coach Steve Vinciale said. "And that's why we had the girls jump off the bases a couple of times to end the innings early. I've been on both sides of it so it's just about sportsmanship and let both teams walk away and hold their heads up."
