McDonald helps Shadow Mountain shut down St. Mary's, 13-2
April 5, 2022 by David Veenstra, Arizona State University
David Veenstra is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover St. Mary's for AZPreps365.com
PHOENIX – Shadow Mountain center fielder Dylan McDonald's power-hitting combined with a barrage of errors from St. Mary's helped the Matadors thrash the Knights, 13-2, on Tuesday afternoon at Monterey Park.
The beginning of the Knights' onslaught of errors came in the opening frame. With Shadow Mountain's Reese Bertie on first, teammate Zoey Stein hit a grounder that bounced off the foot of St. Mary's first baseman Sol Luna. Bertie scored on the play. Shadow Mountain would later tack on two more runs to make it 3-0 before St. Mary's escaped the inning.
"Well, we dropped our heads again and they started doubting themselves and it's 'Oh here we go again' when we don't make a play," St. Mary's head coach Mike Espinoza said after the first-inning error. "But we're young, we're very young, very inexperienced, stuff like this will happen but this team needs to figure it out."
St. Mary's senior pitcher Michele Galindo singled and later scored to put the Knights on the board in the home half of the first. Later that inning the Knights loaded the bases, but freshman Priscilla Lopez grounded out to second to end the threat.
Shadow Mountain's Reese Bertie gets out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning after St. Mary's freshman Priscilla Lopez grounds out to second. (David Veenstra/AZPreps365)
Galindo tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the second to keep the Knights within two runs, but a scoreless bottom half of the inning saw St. Mary's strand two more runners in scoring position.
Shadow Mountain blew the game open in the top of the third, adding three more runs. McDonald hit a deep drive to right-center field that ended up being a two-run, inside-the-park home run after the junior narrowly beat the Knights' throw home in a close play at the plate.
"[McDonald's] irreplaceable when she shows up at the plate," Shadow Mountain head coach Ashlynn Thompson said. "She is hard to get out."
"I'm talking to my coach before," McDonald said. "I'm like, 'You know if it gets to the fence, I'm going,' so I just turned it up, kept running and the end product was the inside-the-park home run."
An RBI single to center from Shadow Mountain sophomore Sam Torrez later put the Matadors ahead 6-1.
In the bottom of the third, Shadow Mountain's Bertie, on the bump, threw another scoreless inning, as the St. Mary's offense continued to struggle against the Matadors' ace. Bertie allowed only four hits and one earned run over five innings.
The Matadors scored four more runs in the top of the fourth, putting the game further out of reach. Junior third baseman Avery Woodruff's two-RBI single put the Matadors ahead 8-1.
After Matador shortstop Ava Maroulis singled to left, second baseman Natalia Collins-Austin blooped a single over third base, scoring Woodruff and advancing Maroulis to third. Maroulis later scored on a passed ball to make the score 10-1. Galindo was able to get out of the inning after retiring the next two Matadors.
St. Mary's Gabby Pantoja's leadoff triple gave the Knights a spark of hope in the bottom of the fourth. The sophomore center fielder later scored on a passed ball and Lopez ensuingly singled to right-center field, but the Knights were unable to build any momentum after Bertie retired the next three batters.
Shadow Mountain sophomore right fielder Kiera Womack tripled to right-center field to open the fifth inning. Stein then reached first after an error at second, scoring Womack on the play.
St. Mary's seven errors on the afternoon were the contributing factor that kept them out of the game.
"[We played] unmotivated," Espinoza said. "We practiced this way yesterday and it showed today. Nothing against Shadow Mountain but we came out flat and weren't mentally ready for the game. You could see that by all the errors we made."
The Matadors then scored two more runs on passed balls before Galindo was able to find a way out of the inning. The St. Mary's senior pitcher tossed five innings and allowed 13 runs, but only five of them were earned due to all the errors. Galindo punched out five Matador batters as well.
"My pitcher threw really well," Espinoza said. "She's been throwing like that all year, but she just hasn't gotten the support behind her at times."
The first-year head coach for St. Mary's said Galindo got the necessary ground balls and fly balls, but the defense behind her couldn't come up with the plays. "I just don't think everyone was in the right spot or they didn't read the ball well," Galindo said.
"If this team can figure out how to play defense and come ready to play mentally, we're pretty good," Espinoza said. "But when we come out not thinking about the game and not getting ready for it, games like this will happen especially with a young immature team."
