The athletes of Foothill Technology High School’s (Foothill Tech) softball team took the field at Ventura College to take on the St. Bonaventure Seraphs for a St. Patrick’s Day match-up on March 17. The 4 p.m. league opener for Foothill Tech was cause for more festivities as they dominated the Seraphs from the start into an early mercy rule finish following the end of the fifth inning. 

Natalie Nunes ‘22 started on the mound for the Dragons, and she faced some of her only troublesome spots of the game in the first inning. After two quick groundouts, the Seraphs hit a double and single back-to-back to get on the board with a 1-0 lead; and despite stringing together two more hits and loading the bases, were unable to convert before a third groundout to end the inning.

Foothill Tech followed a similar path in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead, when Nunes drove in right-fielder Brianna Franco ‘22 on a two-out double, before scoring herself on a single from Lauren Fossati ‘25. 

Nunes put St. Bonaventure away with ease in the second and paved the way for her teams’ bats to come alive. Third-baseman Tiffany Martinez ‘24 doubled to start a monstrous offensive inning for the Dragons, followed by a line drive single from second-baseman Linda Manzo ‘23. 

Catcher and leadoff hitter Jasmine Guzman ‘23 batted in Martinez on a double, and Franco did the same for Manzo on a single up the middle. The final runs of the inning came from a stolen base score from Guzman and yet another run batted in (RBI) from Nunes, scoring Franco again to give the Dragons a 6-1 lead at the end of two. 

The highlight in a scoreless third inning came in the top half when a long flyball from St. Bonaventure was corralled by center fielder Danielle Bishop ‘23 and relayed to shortstop Maddy Huovinen ‘22, who got the ball to Guzman for an easy tag at home plate to save a run and end the inning. 

Huovinen was not surprised by her team’s success, citing, “We’ve been working really hard lately, and we just gelled together really well.”

The second and last Seraph score came in the fourth inning when St. Bonaventure scored one of their two base runners on a groundout, but it would end up being Dragon dominance for the rest of the outing.

The bottom of the fourth saw Foothill Tech increase their lead to 8-2, when Nunes batted Franco in for the third time of the game before scoring on a line drive by Jaelyn Perez ‘25. 

Nunes finished the Seraphs in the top of the fifth with the help of her infield, who pulled off a double play on a grounder hit to Martinez and thrown to first-baseman Isabella Rodriguez ‘24, who then threw to Guzman for another successful tag play at home.

Finally, the Dragons finished off their rivals 12-1 by way of mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth with RBIs from Huovenin, Fossati and Perez. 

Coach Mark Young echoed his shortstop’s keys to the game, mentioning “A lot of hard work in practice, and our defense really shined today.” 

The Dragons hope to continue their winning ways in league play, but Young spoke of the high level of competition in the Tri-Valley League, saying, “We have both Grace Brethren and Santa Clara, and both of them have been playing pretty well this year.”

The team will travel to take on their aforementioned foes Grace Brethren on Tuesday, March 22 in their second league game of the season.