Coronado softball coach Lauren Taylor thought her team might have missed its chance for a win after the Cougars gave up four runs in the top of the sixth to fall behind by three on Thursday.
She didn’t know what kind of outburst her team had in store in the bottom of the inning.
Coronado sent 18 batters to the plate and scored 13 runs on the way to a 17-7 home win over Arbor View, No. 3 in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings. The Cougars are unranked.
“I was standing over there at third base like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that just got away from us,’” Taylor said. “And then there we go. So never stop believing in these kids.”
The Cougars (11-8) got some help to start the rally, loading the bases on a walk and a pair of errors. Then junior Chase Magdaleno delivered the biggest blow of the inning, driving a ball into the gap in left-center field for a bases-clearing triple to tie the game at seven.
“Oh my gosh, she was due,” Taylor said. “We recently moved her into the four spot and I saw her with three really deep fly balls, and I was like, ‘This is happening. She’s going to rock it.’ So I was really proud of her to come up with that big one and get the rally going.”
Magdaleno scored the go-ahead run on an RBI groundout by Mary Lou Tsunis, but the Cougars were far from done. They added nine more runs, all with two outs, ending the game by the 10-run rule on an RBI single by Caleigh Burns. It was Burns’ second RBI single of the inning.
Coronado had 10 hits and drew three walks in the inning. The Aggies (8-6) committed three errors in the frame.
All nine Coronado starters had a hit, and all but leadoff hitter Bailey Goldberg drove in at least one run.
“Really solid hitting, just a full team effort,” Taylor said. “Positivity, never stopped believing in one another. It was a super fun game to be a part of.”
Arbor View scored four runs in the top of the inning on a two-run single by Audrey Melton, an RBI groundout from Kelsie Phares and a sacrifice fly Chloe Baird.
Three of the four runs were unearned thanks to a pair of Coronado errors.
“I’ve said it for years, if you hit the ball, the errors magically go away and it’s something that I don’t have to talk about after the game is over,” Taylor said. “So if we dwell on them, then we don’t get to go up to the plate and have amazing things happen.”
Burns was 3-for-5 with a double to lead Coronado’s 17-hit attack. Tsunis was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, and Alohi Mundon was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs for the Cougars. Goldberg, Sophie Bendlin, Paisley Magdaleno and Summer Gilliam each added two hits for Coronado.
Arbor View leadoff hitter Malaya Tellis sparked all three of the Aggies’ scoring rallies. She was 3-for-3 with two triples, a walk and three runs scored. Melton was 2-for-3 with three RBIs for Arbor View.
