The kids sure are turning things around for M-A
With plenty of new blood in the dugout this season, the Menlo-Atherton softball team might have expected to go through some growing pains.
The Bears not only feature seven freshmen on their varsity roster this season, first-year head coach Marcus Blunt is in his first year of coaching high school softball. Five of those freshmen have been in the starting lineup this week in games against Half Moon Bay and Mills.
“And they’ve all been contributing,” Blunt said.
While there have been some growing pains, the story of M-A’s season has been one of highs and lows. For the first time since 2014, however, those highs are outnumbering the lows. The Bears are off to an 8-4 overall start, including a 4-2 mark in the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division.
The last time M-A enjoyed a .500 season was in 2014, with a 16-10 overall record and a 6-6 record in the Ocean Division.
The highest of the highs came Monday, when M-A rallied for a 10-9 walk-off victory at home against Half Moon Bay. The Bears trailed 9-6 heading into their final at-bat, but scored four times in the bottom of the seventh to win it. It was M-A’s first one-run victory since 2015.
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“It was huge,” Blunt said. “M-A has not had a winning season since [2014], so our girls have started off really strong.”
Freshman two-way standout Elise Koo played big in the seventh inning. Not only did she close the door on a HMB two-run rally in the top of the seventh, standing two runners by inducing the third out on a fly ball to her sister Dani Koo in center field. In the bottom of the frame, Elise Koo lifted a sacrifice fly to shallow left field to score freshman Lea Martinez from third with the game-winning run.
“It was fairly close,” Blunt said of the bang-bang play at the plate. “They all came storming out of the dugout and went pretty crazy.”
The win thrust M-A into a first-place tie in the PAL Ocean Division standings, but that thrill was short-lived. The Bears returned to the field Tuesday for a 9-2 loss to Mills. M-A now falls to third place in the early season standings, behind HMB and Terra Nova, who are tied for first.
“I think maybe we weren’t fully ready to play [Tuesday] … after all the excitement yesterday,” Blunt said.
The Bears have plenty of sock up and down the batting order. Batting .351 as a team, M-A is led by freshman Kylie Cox, currently hitting .500 (16 for 32). Seven players are batting .400 or better, including senior Angelina Edwards (.455); Dani Koo (.447); freshman Carey Maletis (.429); senior Hannah Blunt (.429); junior Ashlyn Roeder (.412); and Martinez (.407).
Roeder enjoyed a breakout performance in Monday’s win, going 4 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored.
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