The Rio Hondo League softball season is well underway, and on March 15, the high school teams of La Cañada and San Marino met for the first time this season.
The visiting Spartans scored all of their runs with two outs against the host Titans to come away with an 11-0 victory in a game shortened to six innings due to run differential.
“We played great,” San Marino coach Scott Edmonds said. “We told the girls out there, ‘You know what, we played a great game.’ We had one rough inning where they really hit us hard, but, you know what, for this team we are progressing perfectly.”
La Cañada (7-6-1 overall, 2-2 in league) scored all of its runs in bursts, with seven in the top of the third and four in the top of the sixth. In the circle, Elle Leckrone went the distance, striking out 10.
“You don’t always want to find yourself in that situation,” La Cañada coach Travis Lovejoy said. “You hope to get hits earlier, but it’s good we were taking advantage of it and not letting that second out take us out of the inning.
The senior only yielded one hit, a single in the third inning by Titan freshman Vivienne Barcarse that the Spartan at shortstop leapt in the air to snag, getting the tip of her glove on the ball only to see it continue into the outfield for the hosts’ only knock of the contest.
“She’s been dealing with some nagging injuries, so it’s good to get her a few more innings than she has had lately,” said Lovejoy of Leckrone.
The score did not reflect how well San Marino (3-5, 0-4 in league) pitched. Freshman Madeline Bilvado got the start, sat the Spartans down in order on seven pitches in the top of the first and held the visitors scoreless in the top of the second before getting roughed up in the top of the third, allowing the seven runs on four hits and walking three. Barcarse took over the pitching duties in the fourth and Bilvado moved to shortstop. Barcarse then sat the Spartans down in order in the fourth and fifth innings before getting nicked for the four runs in the top of the sixth.
Titan senior Sophia Bilvado took a break from behind the plate to play third base with freshman Mia Kelly at catcher against the Spartans. The elder Bilvado, still one home run away from breaking the school record, walked all three times she came up at the plate and also stole a base. Barcarse also stole two bases after her third inning single.
“[San Marino] clearly has some new players,” Lovejoy said. “Their starting pitcher [who] then moved to shortstop is clearly a good softball player. Their third baseman is really good and they’ve got some others. So, yeah, I think they are going to be team that we have to think about when we play them.”
The first run of the game came on a two-out double in the third inning by Leckrone to score Riley Lebrecque, who had reached on a walk. Bentley Lebrecque then scored the second run on a wild pitch. The third run came across when Ashley Lovejoy had an RBI single. Ava Perry then bashed a two-run double to right center. The final two runs of the inning scored on a fielding error in the Titan outfield that made it 7-0.
The La Cañada bats got going again in the top of the sixth with two outs. Bentley Lebrecque hit a double to the bottom of the fence in left field that plated Aubrey Wurm and Riley Lebrecque. Leckrone followed with a double of her own for another RBI. The final run of the contest came on a single by Grace Rocco to score Leckrone.
SOUTH PASADENA 12,
SAN MARINO 2
Giddings and Sophia Bilvado both belted a double in the Titans’ five-inning loss to the Tigers in a Rio Hondo League matchup on March 12.
Sophia Bilvado drove in San Marino’s only runs of the game, both scored by Giddings, who went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles.
The Titans hit the road for a pair of league games, starting with a matchup at Temple City on March 22, followed by a contest at Monrovia on March 27.
First published in the March 21 issue of the San Marino Tribune
