The San Marino High softball team faced Monrovia for the third and final time on March 27, with the visiting Titans avoiding the season sweep against the host Wildcats.
Monrovia consistently stoked its advantage against San Marino as the Titans fell 11-1 in a Rio Hondo League matchup that ended in the bottom of the fifth inning due to run differential.
“I saw a team that outhit us,” said San Marino coach Scott Edmonds of the Wildcats. “They hit the ball really, really well and they run the bases very aggressively.”
Monrovia scored two runs in each of the first and second innings off of Titan starting pitcher Vivienne Barcarse, who took the loss. Madeline Bilvado took over in the circle the rest of the way, giving up a single run in the third before the Wildcats exploded for five in the fourth and pushed across a single run in the bottom of the fifth that raised the advantage to 10 and brought the contest to an end.
“We just have a young, inexperienced team and [Monrovia] has got five or six travel ball kids,” Edmonds. “They have a very experienced team and they just outplayed us.”
Wildcat pitcher Angelica Oseguera pitched a no-hitter in the five innings played, striking out eight to take the win. However, San Marino prolonged the game and avoided being shut out in the top of the fifth.
Titans sophomore Grecia Aguiar led off by being hit with a pitch. San Marino junior Elizabeth Esbenshade followed, grounding into a fielder’s choice that got the lead runner but left her at first. With Titans senior Nadia Escobar up, a wild pitch advanced Esbenshade to second base. A groundout by Escobar advanced Esbenshade to third, now with two outs. San Marino freshman Mia Kelly came to the plate next, during whose at-bat Oseguara threw another wild pitch, allowing Esbenshade to score, bringing the run differential under 10 and forcing the Wildcats to come to bat in the bottom of the frame to finish things off.
It was the first plate appearances of the season for Esbenshade, who was returning from a torn ligament in her thumb that had her in a cast for most of the season. The junior had appeared in the field the game before at Temple City, but her at-bat in the top of the second inning against Monrovia, in which she smacked a hard liner to the first baseman for an out, was her first time at the plate this season.
“Huge to get her back,” said Edmonds of Esbenshade, whose freshman sister, Sarah, is also on the team. “She hit the ball hard twice. Once was a missile to the first baseman [Marissa] Polanco. She ran the bases. She scored the one run we scored. She is going to be a huge impact player for us.”
It was the last time that San Marino’s pair of seniors, Escobar and Sophia Bilvado, would face Monrovia as Titans. Both reached base, with Sophia Bilvado and Escobar both drawing walks in the first and third innings respectively.
“Obviously it’s rough losing a game like this, but I’m glad I’m able to do it with Nadia,” Sophia Bilvado said. “We’ve been playing all four years together and it’s been very enjoyable playing with her. As I said, it’s difficult losing games like this, but it’s always fun playing in the end of the day.”
Escobar expressed a similar viewpoint on the day’s result.
“I feel like at this point it is more about having fun,” she said. “You have to accept your outcome at a certain point. You just have to make the best out of it.”
Added Sophia Bilvado: “It’s really fun playing with Nadia,” the senior Bilvado said. “She has been my throwing partner for the last four years, so everything is a memory with Nadia.”
SOUTH PASADENA 10, SAN MARINO 2
Titans junior Kayla Giddings hit a solo home run, and sophomore Madison No went 2-for-3 with an RBI as San Marino fell to the Tigers in a Rio Hondo League game March 29.
Madeline Bilvado pitched six innings and yielded nine hits, nine runs (one earned), four walks and three strikeouts. Barcarse tossed one inning, walking two and allowing one earned run. Elizabeth Esbenshade scored the game’s other run.
The Titans (3-10 overall, 0-8 in league as of April 1) will be on break after their nonleague battle against Alhambra on April 2. San Marino returns to action Tuesday, April 16 with a home game against reigning league champion Temple City. The Titans play one day later on April 17 on the road at La Cañada.
First published in the April 4 issue of the San Marino Tribune
