There seems to be no obstacles between Lakewood and another Moore League softball championship, not after an 8-0 rout Tuesday afternoon in a first-place showdown at Millikan — but Lancers coach Andy Miramontes doesn’t believe the race is over.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he argued after Erica Robles scattered four hits in a solid effort on the mound and Hannah Clark doubled and homered to lead a nine-hit attack. “We play hard. We go out to win. We hit the ball well. We’ve got a target on our back.
“We got to win a few more ballgames.”
There’s not much competition for the Lancers (15-6 overall, 5-0 Moore), who romped to a 13-3 mercy-rule victory 12 days ago over Wilson, the only other genuine rival in the league, and were one big hit from invoking the 10-run regulation in the sixth inning Tuesday.
Robles, who relied on a strong curveball and screwball, labored through a tough first inning, was dominant until the fourth, then finished strong to silence the Rams (13-8, 4-1). She allowed only one runner into scoring position and not until the Lancers had a 6-0 lead in the fifth.
“She kept us off balance, did a really nice job,” Millikan coach Don Harper said. “If we make a play or two, that game goes scoreless until the fifth, sixth, maybe seventh inning.”
The Rams weren’t sharp defensively, and Miramontes had his team running aggressively when it got on base. They took advantage of two errors, scoring on both — Jessica Scroggins coming home from first on a bad throw in the infield — and brought home another run on Robles’ safety squeeze.
Clark and Kylie Lundberg had three hits apiece, and both hit solo homers in the fifth, chasing Millikan starter Brielle LaLiberte, who was in a keen pitcher’s duel with Robles until the Lancers pushed home four runs on four hits, an error, a walk and that squeeze play in the fourth.
Possible ace Anessa Cepeda, who was eligible for the first time since transferring to Lakewood from Poly, didn’t make her Lancers debut, although Miramontes considered it when Robles threw six successive balls in the fourth.
“It’s her first game back. She works hard,” Miramontes said. “I expect her to make our next start. (Not playing) makes her hungrier for the next game.”
Lakewood, which has won seven of the past nine Moore crowns and reached the CIF Southern Section Division 2 title game last year, meets up again with Millikan on May 14, the Lancers’ regular-season finale and Rams’ penultimate game. Harper isn’t counting his team out yet.
“It’s not over until we’re mathematically eliminated,” he said. “If we go into the game and we’ve lost only one time and it’s to them, there’s a lot still on the line. … I think that they’ll get better, and I think we’ll get better, too, and we just have to play with better quality and be ready next time. I don’t think mentally we were ready to play today.”
