Mater Dei Takes Offensive to Silence Critics, Win, 8-0

Before the season, Coach Ed Ulloa heard the talk about his Mater Dei softball team.

The buzz was that the Monarchs couldn’t hit and would struggle to score runs.

But after an 8-0 nonleague victory Wednesday at La Habra, the Monarchs increased their scoring average to more than six runs a game and seemed to have quieted the doubters.

“Oh, they were saying Mater Dei was going to have a tough time winning,” said Ulloa, in his first year at Mater Dei. “They claimed we were in a lot of trouble because we couldn’t hit.”

Ulloa almost started believing the talk, especially after the defending Southern Section Division I champion Monarchs struggled in a preseason scrimmage against Foothill. The game was decided on a last-inning squeeze play to give Mater Dei a 1-0 victory.

Ulloa’s solution was to use assistant coach Joey Mendoza as batting practice pitcher.

“He’s a fastball pitcher,” Ulloa said. “If the girls get in against him, they have no problem against anyone they’re going to face in a game. Before that, we depended on Wiffle ball batting practice and soft toss.”

The results speak for themselves. Mater Dei (8-1), ranked No. 1 in Orange County and Division I, has scored seven or more runs seven times and, Ulloa said, gets production from every spot in the lineup.

The Monarchs wasted little time flexing their muscles Tuesday, scoring twice in the first inning and twice more in the second before right fielder Renee Snyder delivered the big blow in the fifth.

Snyder, making her first start of the season, lined an 0-2 pitch to the gap in left-center field for a three-run home run to give the Monarchs an 8-0 lead in the fifth inning.

Marissa Young had two hits, including a two-run triple in the second inning. Pitcher Tia Bollinger (5-1) pitched a five-hitter with 10 strikeouts and allowed just one runner past first base.

Erin Murray had two hits for La Habra (6-6).

In nonleague softball:

Canyon 9, Savanna 0--Beka Anderson went four for four with a run scored and an RBI and Lisa Hatter had four RBIs for Canyon (7-5-1).

Esperanza 2, Cerritos Gahr 1--Esperanza’s Lauren Sigler doubled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and then scored the winning run on Kelly Leary’s base hit to center.

Mission Viejo 1, Westminster 0 (8)--Mission Viejo scored on a wild pitch by Ashley Maranto in the top of the eighth.

Valencia 6, Century 1--Kim Miller had a three-run home run in Valencia’s six-run fourth inning. Michelle Whiteman (5-1) struck out 11, giving her 61 strikeouts this season for the Tigers (8-3).