The Valley Chronicle - Lady Bulldogs deal with ‘Royal’ painng

San Marcos High School came in from Santa Barbara to defeat the Hemet High softball team 11-1

[caption id="attachment_4065" align="alignright" width="576"] Photo by Corey Evan/The Valley Chronicle
Coach Jeff Galloway meets with his girls postgame.[/caption] ■ By Corey Evan / Sports Reporter This season, the Lady Bulldogs softball team gave club sponsor Larry Minor a run for his money! With a record of 7-3 in league, Hemet High made the CIF playoffs. The second round in division four against Santa Barbara’s San Marcos High made for an exciting day May 23. The first batter for San Marcos was walked, the second took a bean ball pitch, and the first run was an error picked up off of third from a throw to left field. The Royals’ second run was an RBI single. San Marcos would take four runs to kick things off… and that was just the top of the first inning! The second inning came and went without any change in score. Kamryn Callicott finally got Hemet onto the big board during the third inning, but before the Bulldogs could turn this game around, the Royals smashed a two-hit homer to expand their lead. And then in the fifth inning, the Royals added one more. Kassidy Lynch took a bean ball to the head in the same inning and walked it off, but the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on this. And finally in the sixth inning, the Royals hit a grand slam. With a score of 11-1, San Marcos moved on to round three while Hemet was left to clean up after them. Coach Jeff Galloway, while proud of his girls for making it this far, felt that they had let down their performance here: “We just didn’t bounce back like we have been since we got into league. We just didn’t fight today.” That said, they did have some tough competition. “They’ve got three girls that can hit the ball and we knew that,” said Galloway. “But I anticipated us to have a little more fight and to come back and hit the ball. And today wasn’t our day.” Still, as the Royals move on to try and deal a royal pain to another team, Hemet’s girls can at least take comfort in the fact that this year they went out swinging.