On the afternoon of April 10, the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) girls softball team stepped up to the plate to face off against the Ventura High School Cougars (Ventura). Although the Dragons refused to back down, Ventura’s sharp, disciplined defense held firm, and Foothill Tech had to settle for a 0-6 shutout loss.
In the first inning, Liliana Gonzalez ‘28 stepped up to the plate. After nearly being hit by a pitch, Gonzalez quickly bunted down the third-base line to put a runner on base. However, three rapid outs prevented Foothill Tech from building on the early spark.
Mackenzie Warren ‘29 started on the pitcher’s mound for the Dragons. After a groundout and a flyout, the Dragons looked ready to escape the inning cleanly, but a high pop fly by a Ventura batter sailed out of the park for a home run, giving the Cougars a 0-1 lead at the end of the first.
After an uneventful second inning, Ventura’s bats began to heat up. A triple drove in a run to take them up 0-2, and moments later, another shot into the outfield nearly brought in a second run, but Alinah Rodriguez ‘27 made a strong play to close out the third.
Entering the fourth inning, the Dragons hoped to spark a comeback, but Ventura’s defense stayed airtight, and Foothill Tech couldn’t get a runner on base. Warren struck out two batters, and a groundout to first ended the inning.
A fifth scoreless inning followed for Foothill Tech’s offense. However, Ventura’s first pitch from Dragon Warren was blasted out of the park to take the Cougars up 0-3. A walk batter later came home to score, along with a bases-loaded single that pushed the lead to 0-5 before Warren recorded a strikeout to stop the Cougars’ momentum.
“We definitely had our weak moments in defense, and we couldn’t get our offense going at all today… We needed to score runs, and we didn’t today,” Jaylene Aguirre ‘28 said.
In the sixth inning, the Dragons showed flashes of life but still couldn’t bring home a run. Ventura’s third home run of the game made the score 0-6, leaving Foothill Tech with a steep hill to climb in order to take a comeback victory. However, it was not to be for the Dragons, and a scoreless seventh inning sealed the 0-6 loss.
“We are going to go back to work, get to work on our batting and our fielding, and come back strong … We have a saying on our team that we trust the process, and this is part of the process,” head coach Jared Bouchard said.
The Dragons will face off against St. Bonaventure (Bonnie) at Ventura College on April 14 in a bid to improve their 1-3 league record.
