By Sandor Kopitz
Staff Writer
Although a team’s offense is often given the most attention in softball, it was defensive perseverance that determined the outcome in the Costa softball team’s Wednesday loss to the Palos Verdes Sea Kings.
The game was a low-scoring duel between junior Mustang pitcher Breanna Kelly and senior Sea King Alex Whittemore that ended with a 2-0 Sea Kings’ win, and Costa will look to improve upon its 3-1-0 Bay League record against Peninsula at home at 3:15 p.m. today.
“This was the best they [the Costa players] could do,” Costa coach Richard Amberik said. “We had opportunities; we just couldn’t do it.”
No runs were scored in the first five innings, although multiple Costa runners were left on base in the third and fourth innings. By the end of the game, the Mustangs had left a total of five runners on base.
“We had two outs [for] all [of] the time [that] runners finally were getting on base,” Amberik said.
Both of Redondo’s runs came in during the top of the sixth inning. After the first two Sea King batters safely got on base and soon advanced on a wild pitch from Kelly, senior Palos Verdes shortstop Haley Schenasi
hit a high-arcing double after a long at-bat delayed by injury. The hit brought both runners in and established a deficit that Costa would never overcome.
“In a normal game we would have been able to recover from that two-run double, but in such a tight game where the runs were scored so late, it was too hard for us to recover,” Kelly said.
Kelly wound up pitching all seven innings, and Whittemore also threw a complete game.
For the Mustangs, sophomore Nicolette Gialketsis went 2-3 and junior Stefanni Lajeunesse went 1-3 with a double in the fourth inning, highlighting a game of missed opportunities for Costa.
“We really need to work on our offense and on hitting the ball,” Kelly said. “Our defense was strong and we played well in the field, but, simply enough, we just need to work on our defense.”
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