Villa Park remains atop Freeway League standings with victory over Sonora

Villa Park players after Monday’s win over Sonora. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Julianna Romero pitched a four-hit shutout and homered to lead Villa Park’s softball team to a 6-0 victory over Sonora in a Freeway League game Monday afternoon at Sonora. 

The Spartans (9-11, 5-2) won their fourth consecutive game and have won six of their last seven to remain atop the competitive Freeway League. 

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“I felt good today, but it wasn’t my best game,” said Romero, who struck out eight and walked only two batters. “As the game went on, my defense made some big plays and my confidence grew. This win puts us in a good place.”

In the top of the first inning, Shea Gonzalez led off with an infield single and Sydney Pollack reached base on an error. Romero stepped to the plate and blasted her sixth home run of the year, a drive over the right center field fence, giving the Spartans a 3-0 lead before an out was recorded. 

Sonora (6-10, 2-4) had multiple scoring opportunities but was unable to capitalize. Sonora had base runners on in six of the seven innings but weren’t able to break through with a big hit. 

“I locked in when they had runners on base and my off speed pitches were working today,” said Romero, a sophomore right-hander. 

Villa Park upped its lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning as Hannah Estrada’s RBI double scored pitch runner Julia Savino. Later in the inning, Kiera Trotter, pinch running for Estrada, scored on an RBI by Reese McGinnis.

Gonzalez led off the sixth inning with a double for the Spartans and then stole third and home to increase Villa Park’s lead to 6-0. 

Gonzalez had a huge game with three hits, scored two runs, four stolen bases and was on base three times. 

“My job is to get on base and create chaos,” said Gonzalez. “This was a critical win for us. We’re playing better each game and getting ahead early in the game is super important for us.” 

Spartans Coach Terry Williams said it was key win.

“We’ve now beaten Sonora and Brea twice and we’re 5-2 in league, so we hold a few tie breakers,” said Williams, who is in his 11th season as the Spartans coach. “We still have a bunch of tough games ahead of us. Over our last six games, we’ve been pitching a lot better and our defense has been very good. Abby (Urbanski) had a really good game defensively today at third base.”

Despite the loss, Raiders Coach Michele Rodriguez remained upbeat and optimistic about her team’s future.

“We are a young team; we don’t have any seniors,” said Rodriguez. “We had excellent opportunities to score today, but we didn’t come up with a big hit. This game is a learning process for us.

“We made a few errors early and they took advantage of that. I think both of our ptichers (Jordan Venegas and Gabriela Montano) have come a long way and are doing a good job for us. Give Villa Park credit, they made some very good defensive plays.”

Samantha James, Chloe Hong, Aliana Pacheco and Ashlyn Pantages each had a hit for Sonora. The two teams play again next Tuesday at Sonora. 

NOTES:

—-Sonora coach Michele Rodriguez is in her 27th year as coach of the Raiders. 

—-Villa Park Coach Terry Williams said that three of his players have committed to play softball next season; Shea Gonzalez/University of Washington, Sydney Pollack/Seattle University and Kiera Trotter/La Sierra University (Riverside).

—-Williams was an All-American lineman at El Dorado and played for UCLA from 1995-98.