Oaks Christian baserunner Terrianna Kelley collides with Westlake second baseman Samy Gallegos after an errant throw hit Kelley during a rundown, Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Oaks Christian. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, contributing photographer)
WESTLAKE VILLAGE – The Oaks Christian softball team remained unbeaten in Marmonte League play Thursday by erasing a five-run deficit to beat crosstown rival Westlake 7-5.
The Lions (13-2, 5-0 Marmonte) have 35 consecutive league wins, dating back to 2021.
In the top of first, it looked like the visiting Warriors (9-5, 2-3) were ready to topple the Lions. Their first six hitters all reached base with the first five scoring. That led to a pitching change for Oaks Christian before it recorded an out.
Junior Paityn Lavin ultimately pitched out of the first-inning jam but the Lions were left trailing 5-0.
Lavin went onto to throw seven innings of shutout relief, struck out four and gave up only weak contact all afternoon.
“That’s Paityn,” said Oaks Christian coach Cheyenne Cole. “You know when she’s on and she has that change-up working, that drop ball working, she’s really effective. And, again, she doesn’t need to be a big strikeout pitcher. She can get girls to mishit a ball. She’s going to let her defense work behind her.
Oaks Christian played strong defense despite having multiple players out of position because of injuries.
“We take pride in ourselves on what we prepare for and how much we practice on those situations,” said Cole. “We have a lot of talent. I mean, sometimes our infield is better, sometimes our outfield is better. It’s a good problem to have. We have athletes everywhere. We have outfielders who can play infield. Infielders who can play outfield. It was tough almost at one time finding everybody a spot in the field because there were just so many good players.”
The Lions’ offense was led by sophomore Gia Otani, who went 4 for 4 with four RBIs and belted a game-tying, opposite-field homer.
A third-inning single from Otani knocked in the second run for Oaks Christian, and came after she fouled off multiple two-strike pitches.
Senior Lily Knox drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly after she also fouled off multiple two-strike offerings.
“We work on that a lot – our two-strike approach,” said Cole. “When we’re hitting pop-ups and stuff, that’s not what we want to do. We know what we’re doing when we have two strikes. I think that’s what you saw today, is that they did a really good job when they had two strikes. Probably, most of our runs scored came off two-strike counts.”
The top three hitters in Oaks Christian’s lineup – Ilove’a Brittingham (2 for4, double), Terrianna Kelley (2 for 4, home run) and Rylee McCoy (3 for 3, HBP) — each scored twice.
Westlake had a run each from Samy Gallegos (2 for 4, double), Amanda Baldwin, Sydney Katz, Mia Morera and Olivia Ziebell-White.
The win was the 10th straight for Oaks Christian and marked the largest deficit they’ve overcome this season.
“Today I was really proud of how they didn’t hit the panic button because they could have been like, “Oh, my gosh. I’m not scoring,’” said Cole. “We try to remind them, ‘Hey, one game at a time. We’re not looking ahead.’ Anybody can beat anybody on any given day, and, you know, teams have proven that. So, I tell them you can’t take anybody in this league lightly because everybody can come out and show you up one day.
In other softball games Thursday:
Newbury Park 2, Thousand Oaks 1
West Branch 15, Castaic 2
Saugus 7, Canyon Country 0
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