Schroeder, Esperanza overpower Rosary

ANAHEIM - Esperanza played two softball games Tuesday, and in both of them, a towering Nicole Schroeder home run helped the host Aztecs pull away from Rosary.

The junior outfielder finished with five RBIs in the second game of the nonleague double header at Esperanza High as the Aztecs cruised to a 15-4 victory. They won the first game, 9-1.

"We have played Rosary before and usually it's a battle," Esperanza coach Ed Tunstall said. "We are just playing well on both sides. We are doing well in the field and we are hitting well too. Everything just seems to be clicking.

"I don't know if I have every seen two girls hit a grand slam in the same game."

Schroeder and Brittany Virgoe both did it in the second game. Virgoe's blast capped a six-run fourth inning in which the Aztecs (5-0) batted around for the second time in the game.

They sent 10 batters to the plate in the first, erasing the 1-0 lead the Royals (4-8) took in the top half of the inning. Chelsea Gonzales' sacrifice fly to left scored Isabel Serrano.

Schroeder was the sixth batter to step up to the plate for the Aztecs in the first, and she drove the first pitch she saw over the fence in center field for a grand slam, giving the Aztecs a 5-1 lead.

She had three at-bats in the second game and reached base safely each time, adding a single in the second and the fourth.

In the first game, she hit a two-out solo home run in the fourth, breaking a 1-1 tie. Later that inning, Jasmine Lee roped a two-run single to center to extend the Aztecs' lead to three runs, and Kelsea Roth added a two-run double later in the inning.

Even when they were down, 9-1, in the second game, the Royals kept fighting back. In the top of the third Isabel Serrano drove Marissa Meyer's home. Darby Sanchez and Meyer led off the inning with a single and double, respectively.

Emma Engelage opened Rosary's half of the fifth with a single, and she scored the Royals' third run when Kaitlin Fitzgerald lined a double into left-center field.