Ramuno dominates, blanks Santana

By Adam Paul
Updated: April 13, 2022

2022 EAST COUNTY PREP SOFTBALL

By Adam Paul

SANTEE(4-13-22) – Making up games is always hard with trying to figure out where to move them on the schedule so that you aren’t playing a crazy amount of games during the week among other things.

On Wednesday afternoon one such game was played as the Helix Highlanders traveled to Santana to play a league game that was originally scheduled back on March 29th but like so many other games that day was postponed due to wet grounds caused by the heavy rains that swept thru the County.

Helix who came into the contest having not played a game since the previous week showed no rust as they overpowered the Sultans in a 5-0 Grossmont Hills League contest.

Sophia Ramuno (2-4, 2B) received the starting nod for the Highlanders and would shut down the Sultans to earn her tenth victory of the season as she allowed no runs on two hits while walking three and fanning ten on the day for the complete-game victory.

Offensively for the Highlanders, they would take an early 1-0 lead when Danika Munoz (2-3, R, 2 RBI, 2B) drove in Elaine Mohammad (RUN) who had come into run for Ramuno who doubled with one out.

Helix would have another opportunity to add more in the top of the third inning when Valeria Avila (1-3) and Lauren Farace (1-4) hit back-to-back singles but neither would plate as Ashtyn Niemiec would get out of the inning with a double play followed by a ground ball out.

However, the luck wouldn’t last as Helix would strike in the top of the fourth inning starting with an RBI double by Munoz that plated Amber Young (1-3, R) and advance Kamryn Evans (1-3, R) to third base, the following batter Ivy Greene (1-2, R, 3 RBI, HR) would do the most damage as she belted a shot deep over the left-field fence for a three-run blast of which it was her first of the season over the left-field fence to extend the lead to 5-0.

The Sultans would have an opportunity in the bottom of the fourth inning as Madison Jordan led off by reaching on an error which was followed by a walk to Kassidy Harper. Both Jordan and Harper would advance to second and third courtesy of a sacrifice bunt by Jordyn Beatty and despite a two-out walk to load the bases all runners would be stranded as Ramuno would get the final out via a pop out.

Other than a walk in the bottom of the sixth inning the Sultans wouldn’t get a baserunner on as Ramuno would shut them down including striking out the side in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.

For the Sultans, the only hits on the day came courtesy of Kaitlyn Ours and Hailey Phillips.

Niemiec for the Sultans was tagged with the loss as she gave up five runs on eight hits in her three and a third inning of work in which she struck out one, Aurelia Dawson came into the game in relief and would give up four hits over three and two-thirds innings in which she walked one and struck out two.

With the loss, the Sultans fall to 7-9 overall and 0-2 in league play and have now lost four in a row.

Helix with the victory improves 13-5 overall and 2-0 in league play and now have won two in a row.