Kaydence Koepsell winds up to deliver a pitch. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Kaydence Koepsell pitched well and the Paloma Valley bats were hot early, but the Wildcats softball team couldn’t hold on to a 2-0 lead and lost 4-2 to Temecula Valley on Tuesday afternoon.
Paloma opened the game by setting the Bears down in order before setting the tone early in the bottom of the first inning. Brooke Bobbette singled before stealing second, and Hailey Alarcon followed up with a walk to set up the Wildcats with two on and no outs. After a flyout and a forceout,
Laura Liera stepped up to the plate. A passed ball then put both runners in scoring position, and Liera laced a ball up the middle to drive both runners in, giving Paloma the early 2-0 lead.
Paloma’s bats cooled down as the next few innings rolled on, but Koepsell’s pitching made sure the Temecula Valley bats stayed cold as well. Through the first three innings, she recorded 5 strikeouts and gave up only one hit, a triple. A great play by the catcher picking off the Bears’ runner at third erased that baserunner and preserved a clean inning.
The Bears finally got to Koepsell in the fourth after a couple of Paloma Valley errors set them up with multiple runners in scoring position and less than two outs. Temecula Valley capitalized, but was only able to drive in one of those runners on a sacrifice fly, leaving the score 2-1 heading into the late innings of the game.
Paloma continued to struggle at the plate as Temecula Valley gained more momentum, an issue that Coach Ray Arredondo said is becoming a trend to start the season.
“This happened to us in the tournament,” he said. “We seem to start off really hot, we’ll get 2 runs, 4 runs, and then we’ll hit the cruise control button. We let a team back in when we should’ve been closing the door and keeping the momentum going. We need to be dogs and just keep fighting no matter what.”
Paloma’s inability to widen the lead finally came back to hurt the Wildcats in the top of the fifth, but it was nothing short of controversial. The Bears had the tying run sitting at third and hit a pop fly to left that looked to be long enough for the runner to tag. A beautiful throw home on one hop to the catcher looked to have resulted in an inning-ending double play, but the umpire called the runner safe — a call that Paloma fans and their coach made known that they were not happy about. Nonetheless, the call stood, and the game was now tied.
By the time the seventh inning rolled around, Koepsell was still dealing, keeping the Wildcats in the game. After giving up a single and a stolen base, the Bears hit a two-run home run. The homer not only gave the Bears the lead but also took Koepsell out of the game. She finished the game with 6.1 innings pitched and 9 strikeouts.
Kadie Urban came on in relief and got the final two Bears out, but the Paloma offense could not respond in the bottom half, cementing their loss.
Despite the disappointing loss, Arredondo said he is excited for what lies ahead this season and how the team will respond.
“I’ve been with this group now since the beginning of the school year, and I’ve seen them develop together as a team,” he said. “They fight for each other every day, day in, day out. The culture is, ‘I got you, you got me, we got us’, that’s what we’re living by.”
Paloma Valley will look to respond with a win in its next game Thursday at Jurupa Valley.
Sophia Dunn rounds second on her way to a triple. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Hailey Alarcon connects for a hit. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Brooklyn Berni applies the tag to a runner but the umpire called her safe. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
Hailey Alarcon throws a runner out. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
