El Capitan softball’s bats working through a dry spell

Bobby Johnson knows there’s going to be ups and downs with his first-year program.

Eight of the Gauchos’ 10 regulars are underclassmen, with four freshmen starting. It’s definitely a talented group, as indicated by the team’s 5-1 start to the season. But there’s a reason coaches covet experience.

The hits that came so abundantly to start the season have become scarce over the last week and El Capitan is having trouble adjusting. The Gaucho bats went dormant against the power of Pacheco’s Gia Rodoni on Thursday and only fared slightly better against the finesse of Johansen freshman Lia Va’a on Friday afternoon.

Utilizing a nasty changeup early and often, Va’a limited El Cap to five hits in seven shutout innings as the Vikings spoiled the Gaucho home opener with a 2-0 victory.

“We just didn’t go up with very good approaches today,” Johnson said. “It’s the first time this season we’ve seen a pitcher with that kind of changeup that went to it that often. We talked about how to handle it all game, but the kids didn’t make the adjustments.

“It’s a young team and we’re going to have some good days to go along with some bad ones. Unfortunately, we’re in a bit of a dry spell right now.”

All the offense came in the opening inning.

With Cassie Gasper pitching every inning for El Capitan (5-5) on the season heading into Friday, Johnson decided the nonconference tilt was the perfect time for freshman Eleanor Nelson to make her first start.

Nelson retired the first batter, but got in trouble when Johansen’s Va’a and Marissa Wood followed with a single and a double, respectively.

D’Angel Zavala opened the scoring with an RBI ground out to short. The damage might have been limited there, but a throwing error on an attempted steal allowed Wood to come home and make it 2-0 Vikings (7-0).

It looked like the Gauchos would answer right back in the bottom half of the inning when a McKenzie Schumacher single and stolen base and a Marcelina Mariano bunt single put runners on the corners with no outs.

As quickly as El Cap grabbed the momentum, Johansen seized it right back when Gasper lined out to first and Mariah Castillo tagged Mariano for an easy double play. Va’a then recorded the first of her seven strikeouts to escape the inning unscathed.

The offense for both teams disappeared from there as the pitchers began to dominate.

Gasper took over in the circle in the third inning and retired 15 of the 16 batters she faced, striking out nine.

Va’a was almost as good, only allowing four batters to reach base the rest of the way and yielding lone hits in the second, sixth and seventh innings.

That hit in the seventh did spark El Capitan’s only other scoring threat in the game, however, as Taylor Mendoza laced a double to left center to open the inning. Ariana Valenzuela’s ground ball to third two batters later proved too hot to handle and the Gauchos had runners at the corners again with one out.

Va’a answered back, getting a pop up and a strikeout to end the game.

“I think we’re not having fun up at the plate anymore,” Nelson said. “We’re tight up there. All of a sudden league started and things got more serious, and the fun we were having to start the season has disappeared.

“We need to get that spark back, and once we do, we’re going to be fine.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2015 at 10:32 PM with the headline "El Capitan softball’s bats working through a dry spell."