OTTAWA – When you’re hot, well, you’re hot.
That would describe the game Oswego sophomore Aubriella Garza had at the plate and in the pitching circle in the Panthers’ 9-3 victory against Ottawa on Monday afternoon at King Field.
Garza recorded four hits in as many at-bats, including a double and home run, and drove in three runs, while also scattering eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts in a complete game.
“My teammates cheer me on, and that’s my power, but my third baseman, Kiyah Chavez, is really my pick me up,” said Garza, who threw 61 of her 96 pitches for strikes. “She’s always keeping my confidence high with her words of encouragement.
“After the second inning I just told myself I needed to get everything together and I was able to find my groove. Much of that was just really spinning the ball towards the outside corner ... [Ottawa batters] were swinging at those, so I just tried to keep my pitches out there as much as possible.”
Her four hits brought her hot streak to 11 consecutive at-bats with a hit.
“I’m really not doing anything special at the plate, to be honest,” Garza said. “My mindset getting into the batter’s box is to just hit the ball solid and so far this season I’ve been able to do that.”
The Panthers, which improved to 2-2 on the season, scored three two-out runs in the top of the first off Ottawa starter McKenzie Oslanzi on an RBI single by Garza and a two-run base hit by Rikka Ludvigson.
The Pirates (3-1) plated a run in their half on an RBI double by Kendall Lowery, then tied the game at 3-all in the second on an error and run-scoring triple by Ryleigh Stehl.
“We had scored a lot of runs in our first three games coming into today, and it was another nice day at the plate collectively throughout the lineup,” Oswego coach Paul Netzel said. “We also did a good job running the bases, we had a solid game in the field, including making a couple of really tough catches, and Aubriella pitched a fantastic game for us. It was a good all-around game for us.”
The visitors took the lead for good in the third as Kaylee LaChappell scored on the back end of a double steal with courtesy runner Bella Lisle before Chavez scored Lisle on a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.
The Panthers added a run in the fourth on a pair of Ottawa errors, and in the fifth, Garza followed a leadoff single by Cori Kennedy with a no-doubt-about-it line drive homer off Ottawa reliever Maura Condon, who allowed three earned runs in three innings, allowing one walk and three hits. Oswego closed out the game’s scoring in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Zoe Precup.
Oslanzi look the loss after allowing six hits on three earned runs with one walk and eight strikeouts in four innings.
“[Oswego] is a really good team overall,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “They have some girls in the front end and middle of the order that can flat out stick, but the bottom of the order was putting together solid at-bats all game long, as well. They punched us in the mouth right from the start, and while I was happy to see us fight back a little, we just didn’t do a lot of things that we needed to do to win.
“I felt like the way we showed up to the field, then how we took pregame infield, we just didn’t come here with very much energy for whatever reason. This is a game that if you don’t have energy and play loose and have fun, you’re going to be on the wrong end of things like we were today.”
Both squads are scheduled to play doubleheaders Tuesday, with Oswego playing at Neuqua Valley – first game at 10 a.m. – while Ottawa hosts Beecher with a first game starting at 4:30 p.m.