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By Frank Smith
The San Manuel Lady Miners varsity softball team beat Pusch Ridge and Miami this past week to move to 9 – 1 in the region and 18 – 7 overall, moving up in the region at #4 and in the power rankings to #7 secure a higher seeding in the state tournament.
The Lady Miners made the trip over to Oro Valley to take on the Lady Lions from Pusch Ridge on Apr. 16 and came away with a scoring 21 – 14 region win.
In the circle for the Lady Miners was Lyana Waddell with Mariah McBride catching in three innings, Waddell faced 19 batters allowing eight runs on six hits, and five earned runs. Waddell then paired up with Felicia Medina as Medina came in to catch the remainder of the four innings into the seventh. Waddell then faced 23 batters allowing six runs on 10 hits, collecting three strikeouts, one walk, and five earned runs.
At the plate, Mierya Tamayo went 2 for 4 with singles; Alyssa Cuellar went 1 for 6 with a Homerun, and four RBIs; Medina went 5 for 6, with two doubles, a homerun, and five RBIs; Mackenzie Vindiola went 2 for 5 with a double, a sacrifice, and two RBIs; Angelica Zuniga went 4 for 5 with two doubles, and four RBIs; Lyana Waddell went 2 for 3 with a triple, and four RBIs; Mariah McBride went 1 for 5 with a single; and Ashley Vargas went 1 for 1 with a single.
“Lyana struggled to hit her spots, allowing PRCA to come up with ten hits,” said head coach Deanne Brewer. “Defensively, we committed 10 errors. Not what we want to do at this point in the season. So we moved some people around to make them focus.”
“I really don’t think we were mentally in the game,” she added. “I keep telling the girls that we can’t flat line. We have to really power up for the end of the season. We need to play hard every game like it’s the championship game. I believe we have a shot at the title, but we can’t have games like this.”
San Manuel hosted the Lady Vandals from Miami on April 19 getting the win 11 – 5 region win.
The Lady Miners hosted Pusch Ridge on Tuesday and will host the Lady Hawks from St. Gregory today with the first pitch slated for 4 p.m.
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