Mira Costa Varsity Softball loses their first two games of the TNT Tournament

Taylor Phillips

Staff Writer

Mira Costa Varsity Softball loses their first two games of the TNT Tournament

Mira Costa Varsity softball lost their first two games of the TNT Tournament against West Torrance, with a score of 7-4, and Culver City, with a score of 8-5, at West Torrance High School on Mar. 13th.

The Mustangs put up a strong fight during their first game against West. West scored four runs in the first two innings and held the Mustangs scoreless through the first two innings. Outfielder Grace Householder hit a double and pitcher Katie Katsuyama hit a single that started the rally and a sacrifice fly out by outfielder Piper Neri scored their first run. A single by outfielder Emma Fong scored their second run.

“I think in the first game, our team got really fired up and we really started to focus on hitting in practices, so it started to click for us,” pitcher Katie Katsuyama said.

They kept the momentum on their side and scored a run the fourth inning. A triple from Katsuyama started the Mustangs off and a single by Neri scored Katsuyama in. Hits by shortstop Amanda Siegel and pitcher Angel Santellan helped score another run in the fifth inning. But their rally wasn’t enough and West scored three runs in the fourth inning and held off the Mustangs with a score of 7-4.

“Our overall performance was okay,” first baseman Jenna Ortega said. “There’s some stuff that we need to still work on but overall, we are improving each game.”

Costa started their second game off strong against Culver City and scored a run in the first inning with an infield hit by Neri and a single from Siegel to score Neri. The Mustangs gave up four runs in the second inning and rallied back to score one run in the second inning with hits by Fong and second baseman Ella Lee.

“In the second game, I think our team did a good job scoring runs, even when we were behind,” Katsuyama said. “We kept hitting throughout the whole game.”

Culver City scored one run in the third inning and was scoreless in the fourth inning. Costa came back in the fifth inning and scored three runs by hits from Katsuyama, Neri, Lee, and Siegel. Even though the Mustangs made a strong effort in the fifth, they fell short and Culver scored two runs in the sixth inning. Culver held the Mustangs scoreless in the seventh and they lost with a score of 8-5.

“I think today the team did well in keeping our energy up throughout the whole game and we also did well in our hitting and moving the runners over,” Ortega said.

The Mustangs fall to 3-7 overall and will play GG Santiago in Mar. 14th at Garden Grove High School in the Katella Tournament.

“In the next game, I’m looking forward for all of us to back up our pitcher when we are on defense,” Ortega said. “[I’m also looking forward to] all of us to hit really well and to score some runs.”