Athlete of the Week: Belmontes is Mesa’s phenom
Averaging a home run per game seems absurd. It’s remarkable, at the very least.
And for a freshman to be doing it in the Newport-Mesa area is unprecedented.
Meet Costa Mesa High freshman Katie Belmontes. Don’t look away when she hits, or you might miss the ball flying over the fence at the Mustangs’ field.
Belmontes has homered seven times in the first seven games for Costa Mesa (5-2), which is off to its best start in the four-year tenure of Coach Heather Orduña.
The numbers seem insane for Belmontes, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week who bats cleanup and plays center field for the Mustangs. She is batting .577 this season, and has the seven home runs along with 23 runs batted in.
The last time power like this was seen on the Mustangs’ softball field it was from the bat of Ann Marie Topps, the 2003 graduate who went on play at the University of Oregon. Topps set Costa Mesa single-season (11) and career (19) records in home runs during her time with the Mustangs. She also hit 19 home runs for the Ducks as a senior in 2007, which is still an Oregon single-season record.
Orduña is the common link between Belmontes and Topps. To Belmontes, she’s just “coach,” but she is cousins with Topps. In Belmontes, Orduña has seen a player who is mature beyond her years.
“She has a very natural ability to adjust to different pitchers, whether it’s speed or the rotation on the ball or strike zones of umpires,” Orduña said. “She very naturally adapts and adjusts to do what she needs to do, using her same mechanics to go to the ball wherever it is. It’s very clear that she’s naturally gifted. Somehow she’s able to relax and not let the pressure get to her. She zones in and is able to focus on that ball and just put her mechanics together to get the job done.”
Last week, it was a two-run home run and walk-off, two-run single that Belmontes hit to get Mesa past rival Estancia, 16-15, in the fifth-place game of the Costa Mesa Tournament. The homers kept coming this week. Belmontes hit two of them, including a grand slam, in Tuesday’s 18-4 win over Santa Ana.
“Her strength is just incredible,” Orduña said. “Often, when you face a slower pitcher, it’s more difficult to get the ball over the fence. But even [Tuesday], it was effortless. Not that it was effortless; it looked effortless.”
On Thursday, Belmontes hit a three-run jack in the first inning of a 15-7 loss to La Quinta. She was intentionally walked in her other three plate appearances.
What’s her secret? Belmontes isn’t sure. It’s not as if she’s been spending years honing her skills.
Call her a late-bloomer. Belmontes, who also played basketball this past winter and was a second-team All-Orange Coast League selection as a post player, has been playing softball for just two years. She plays travel-ball on the SoCal Athletics with Costa Mesa teammate Brenna Alvis, as well as Newport Harbor’s Sammy del Toro, Diana Surber and Kendall Machado. Belmontes said she looks forward to when the Sailors play the Mustangs in a nonleague game April 7 at Mesa’s field.
Even in travel-ball, Belmontes, who turned 15 last month, is playing up on a 16-and-under team. Yet, there’s nothing young or immature about her swing.
“A lot of hitters go up there and they think about so many things, like, ‘Oh my God, I have two strikes on me,’ or, ‘Is she going to walk me?’” Belmontes said. “Hitting for me isn’t easy, but I feel like if I can go up there and I know I can hit the ball, then it just flows. If you make really solid contact with the ball, then it’s going to go far.”
The Mustangs also want to go far. They want to finish top three in league and qualify for the CIF playoffs for the first time in Orduña’s tenure. Last year they were close, tying for third with Estancia before being routed by the Eagles, 20-5, in a tiebreaker game.
The senior class, led by co-captains Anessa Farldow at catcher, Jasmine Herrera at first base and outfielder Haylee Jack, is motivated. Of the captains, Herrera is a four-year varsity player, while Jack and Farldow are three-year varsity players.
“These girls have been playing for a while,” Belmontes said. “I feel like it’s about time to get far. I mean, I know they had a pretty good season last year, but half our team’s going to be gone this year. I hope this is one of the best seasons.”
If Belmontes can keep hitting, the Mustangs should go far. Topps’ Costa Mesa softball records are in play for the freshman.
The Newport-Mesa records for single-season and career home runs are both held by Estancia’s Taylor West, who had 15 home runs in 2008 and 26 for her career. Once she is done, Belmontes could top those records, too.
“It’s a lot of responsibility,” Belmontes said. “Honestly, batting fourth, sometimes it’s scary for me. It’s like, ‘Oh, they depend on me a lot.’ But now I feel like it’s a lot easier to just go up there with full confidence. These girls all believe in me. They make it a lot easier.”
Orduña certainly believes in Belmontes and the rest of her players. She said they’re showing a mental toughness that wasn’t always there in years past. They fell behind, 14-11, against Estancia after giving up eight runs in the top of the sixth inning but managed to rally back.
“My previous teams would have caved,” Orduña said. “My previous teams would have totally fallen apart.”
This year’s Mustangs didn’t. And they are hungry for Orange Coast League play, which begins April 12 at defending champion and annual powerhouse Calvary Chapel.
Costa Mesa won its first and only league title in program history in 2003, capturing the Golden West League in Topps’ senior year. The Mustangs have not made the postseason since 2011.
“I don’t know what it is,” Orduña said. “Southern California is probably one of the most competitive places for softball, and yet Costa Mesa and Newport is like this weird anomaly. That has not happened yet here, but I think it will come. I think good things are coming in the next few years.”
That point seems to be proven again and again this season, every time Belmontes launches another one over the fence.
“Katie is an automatic star,” Orduña said. “I use [Topps] as an example all the time. Costa Mesa’s kind of a nobody school, on the scale of our nation and on the scale of softball. But I talk about how she went to Oregon ... It’s like, it can happen. I watched it happen with my cousin 15 years ago. It’s pretty cool.”
—
Katie Belmontes
Born: Feb. 5, 2001
Hometown: Costa Mesa
Height: 5-foot-9 1/2
Sport: Softball
Year: Freshman
Coach: Heather Orduña
Favorite food: Pasta
Favorite movie: “The Conjuring”
Favorite athletic moment: Helping her all-star team finish fourth at ASA Western Nationals in Oregon in 2014.
Week in review: Belmontes had a two-run home run and a walk-off, two-run single as Costa Mesa beat rival Estancia, 16-15, in the fifth-place game of the Costa Mesa Tournament on March 16.
