By Ryan Erickson
Staff Writer
Unrelenting perseverance paid off for the Costa softball team in its May 18 home game against Righetti. While staring down the face of elimination, the Mustangs pulled off a dramatic 8-7 win that came off of an extra innings walk-off double during the last out of the game and was the climax of a five-run comeback for Costa.
“I never thought that we were going to lose this game,” junior catcher Katie Saunders said. “We’ve rallied a lot of times this year to win games, and I genuinely believed we were going to come away with a win.”
The Mustangs played their following CIF game yesterday away against Lakewood, but results were not available at the time of publication.
On May 18, Mira Costa sent its ace pitcher junior Breanna Kelly to the mound, who was looking for her 16th win of the year. Righetti followed with its own pitcher in senior Michaela Valencia, who had only let in two runs in the team’s game against Paso Robles.
Righetti was the first to score in the game, getting four consecutive hits against Kelly in the first inning and earning three runs. Costa also got a run across in the first inning off of a solo home run by Saunders, who was slated at second in the lineup. Three more scores by Righetti in the second inning left Costa in a 6-1 hole after the top of the second.
“I struggled a little bit in the first three innings, but then in the fourth I took a deep breath and just relaxed,” Kelly said. “From then on I was able to focus and make good pitches. That was how I didn’t allow them to score all the way until the eighth inning.”
The score remained the same until the sixth inning, when senior Chloe Krasnoff hit a three-run double with the bases loaded to bring the Mustangs within two runs. The very next inning, sophomore outfielder Taylor Glover hit an RBI double and scored off a wild pitch to tie the game at 6-6.
“We never panicked, even when we had our backs up against the wall,” coach Dick Amberik said. “Someone always comes up clutch for us late in games, and we believe we’re always going to make it interesting.”
Following a Righetti run in the top of the inning, the Mustangs staged a comeback in the eighth. Saunders came up to bat with two outs and senior Kamyle Glover and Taylor Glover on base. With a 1-1 count, Saunders drilled a double off the wall that brought in both of the runners, dramatically ending the game at 8-7 in the Mustangs’ favor.
“I was just trying to stay up the middle and get on base for my teammates,” Saunders said. “We believe and trust that anyone on our team can come through in the clutch. Today, I was the one who came through at the very end.”
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