Prep Softball: Sultana beats Oak Hills and takes over first place in the MRL standings
Hope Merrill, by her own admission, has been in a slump since the start of the Mojave River League season.
From Sultana’s first game against Oak Hills on April 1 through the game against Apple Valley on April 10, the senior went 2-for-13 in four league games. She got back on track after hitting a pair of home runs against Burroughs and wanted to keep it going against Oak Hills.
Merrill had her chance in the bottom of the fourth inning on Wednesday against Oak Hills.
Tie game, bases loaded and two outs against Maddie Romo, one of the top pitchers in the High Desert, in the circle for Oak Hills.
Romo began struggling with control, as she walked two batters before Merrill came up to the plate.
With a 2-2 count, Merrill took the next pitch. Merrill says she looked at the scoreboard and saw three balls indicated.
Thinking that she just took ball four and drove in a run with a walk, Merrill tossed the bat aside and yelled at her dugout in excitement.
Prep Softball: University Prep's Jackman breaks CIF-SS record, blasts 61st career home run
Camilla Casillas, the runner at third base, jogged to home plate, also thinking it was a walk. Oak Hills catcher Jade Whitman tagged Casillas for the final out of the inning.
Merrill, the designated player, went back to the dugout and had to sit on what just happened.
“I didn’t feel good. I felt bad because I let my team down,” Merrill said.
She knew she had to wipe the slate clean before leading off the next inning.
“I can’t go in hard-headed the next at-bat and I needed to come back and do something good for my team,” Merrill said.
On the third pitch of the at-bat against Romo, Merrill laced a ball to left field for a double. It would be the start of a two-run rally in the fifth inning for Sultana to take the lead.
Merrill added more to the lead in the sixth inning with a two-run home run for a three-run lead. It was enough to get the win over Oak Hills and take first place in the MRL.
Uncharacteristically sloppy defense
It has been a tough week for Oak Hills, after losing to Apple Valley 8-7 on April 12. Losing a game where they committed five errors, it's the first time the Bulldogs have lost two MRL games in a season since 2019.
Sultana got on the board with a run in the first inning due to back-to-back errors by the Oak Hills infield that would have ended the inning.
Despite multiple opportunities to score more in the first three innings, Sultana only had one run to show for it.
Sultana head coach Obie Galindo thought the team was trying to go for the long ball instead of putting the ball in play and capitalizing off Oak Hills’ mistakes.
“We were trying to do too much,” Galindo said.
The long ball was working for the Bulldogs though as home runs by Romo and Sam Spencer gave them a 3-1 lead in the third inning.
The fourth and fifth innings were where Sultana was able to capitalize on Oak Hills’ mistakes.
Sultana tied the game in the fourth inning after an error by third baseman Daylin Hoenisch and walks by Romo.
After Merrill’s leadoff double in the fifth and Savannah Vanderpool’s infield single, Oak Hills committed errors on the next two batters to allow a pair of runs to score.
Oak Hills scored one more run in the sixth before Merrill blasted a two-run home run to left field to give Vanderpool a three-run cushion in the circle in the seventh.
It was almost needed as the Bulldogs found themselves with the tying run at the plate with two on and two outs in the seventh. Whitman grounded a comebacker to Vanderpool, who threw to first base for the final out.
What’s next
With three games left in the season for both teams, Sultana is in first place with a 6-1 record in MRL action. Oak Hills is tied in second place with Apple Valley with a 5-2 record.
Oak Hills faces Burroughs at home on Friday and then is home against Serrano and ends the season at Hesperia.
Sultana hits the road to Serrano on Friday, then home against Hesperia, before ending at Apple Valley next week.
In the event of a tiebreaker between Sultana and Oak Hills occur at the end of the season, the teams would be co-champions of the MRL. Sultana would get the number one seed for the CIF-Southern Section playoffs because Sultana beat Oak Hills on Wednesday, which is considered the second round of MRL play.
“Our work’s not done. Serrano’s a good team, we still have to go to Apple,” Galindo said.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Prep Softball: Sultana takes over first place in the MRL standings
