Marina gains upper hand

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Three weeks ago, it was the Edison High softball team coming from behind for a wild victory over Marina.

But Tuesday, on her home field, junior Chloe Kaneko helped the Vikings return the favor.

Kaneko’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh scored Sandy Simmons and lifted Marina to a 2-1 Sunset League victory.

Marina improves to 5-2 in league, second place behind Esperanza (6-1). Edison (4-3) falls to third.

“We’ve been working and working and working on situational hitting,” Marina Coach Shelly Luth said. “We have the capability. We can hit the ball, but we’ve been working really hard on that because we leave too many runners on base.”

Edison, which scored five runs in the final two innings to stun the Vikings, 5-4, on April 15, struck first Tuesday. Courtney Gonzales’ RBI groundout in the top of the sixth scored Karley Wester.

In the bottom of the inning, the Vikings used a leadoff walk by Jamie Sullivan and singles by Sydnee Cable and Jackie Kent to load the bases with one out.

New Edison pitcher Sammy Cordova induced a grounder to shortstop for the second out, but then issued a full-count walk to Marina senior Lana Rutkin to force in a run and tie the score at 1-1. The full-count change-up was just high, the home-plate umpire ruled.

“Sammy’s a very good change-up pitcher but that’s a tough pitch to swing at full-count,” Luth said. “That’s a hard one because you’re caught off-guard and chances are you’re going to let that pitch go, which is why they throw it... I thought it was high.”

Sandy Simmons led off the bottom of the seventh and was bunted to second by her sister, Shannon. Sullivan followed with a single, and the runners advanced on a wild pitch with Kaneko at-bat.

She hit a solid single through the middle for the walk-off victory.

“Just shorten up and put the ball in play,” Kaneko said of her mind-set for that at-bat. “I’m not looking for a big hit in that situation. I’m just looking for a little ground ball to move the runner home. It’s a situation that every person wants to be in, and it just happened to be me.”

Junior pitcher Kristen Struett got the win for Marina, allowing one run on five hits. She struck out five Chargers and walked two. Struett was also two for three with a double for the Vikings, who were coming off an 8-5 loss to Esperanza in a first-place showdown.

“It’s the Sunset League, you know, it’s crazy,” Luth said. “It was nice to come back against a quality team and play all aspects of the game.”

Marina is at Fountain Valley today, while Edison travels to Esperanza.