Huntington Beach’s Morgan Drotter plays the ‘hero’ with late homer
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A day after its bats carried it to a critical win at Los Alamitos, the Huntington Beach softball team hosted Marina in a battle for Sunset League title aspirations.
The Oilers’ victory over the Griffins had forged a three-way tie in the loss column at the top of the league, a trio that also included the Vikings each having two losses to their league ledger.
Huntington Beach continued to take control of its own destiny, a two-out, three-run home run by Morgan Drotter in the sixth inning turning Tuesday’s game on its head in a 3-2 win over the visiting Vikings.
“There’s something special with this group here,” Huntington Beach coach Jeff Forsberg said. “They all believe in each other. They all like each other. There’s no drama. There’s no cliques. We’ve gone through a lot.”
“These years past, we’ve had expectations. We have no expectations. There’s a new hero every game.”
It was an improbable late-inning rally. Any momentum from Monday’s triumph, a 9-4 final at Los Alamitos in which the Oilers had 16 hits, appeared to be stymied by Marina right-hander Mia Valbuena.
Huntington Beach (17-7, 5-2 in the Sunset League) left the bases loaded in the second inning, Valbuena escaping the jam with a strikeout of Willow Kellen. The Oilers had just two hits through five innings. Then their power hitters — third baseman Tea Gutierrez and first baseman Bree Carlson — bounced ground balls through the infield with one out.
Valbuena struck out the next batter, and when Drotter stepped up to the plate, the Vikings ace quickly got two strikes on the Oilers’ shortstop. Drotter then got an inner-half offering and lifted it to left field, and on a cool, 60-degree evening without wind, the ball landed on the solar panels in the parking lot beyond the fence.
The Oilers ran out of the dugout to celebrate with their teammates as they crossed home plate.
“I told them in the huddle, when I got my second strike and I swung and missed, in my head, I was like, ‘Shoot. I don’t even know if I can do this,’ but I know that they have my back, and that means the whole world to me,” said Drotter, who has committed to Cornell University.
Valbuena was dominant outside of that moment, but the damage was done. The Michigan commit allowed six hits and a walk, striking out seven across six innings.
“She’s definitely the best pitcher we face in league, for sure, like speed-wise, too” Drotter said of Valbuena. “I have a lot of respect for Mia and Marina, in general. We knew this game meant a lot, and I think just coming out and being together was the most important thing. The outcome showed that.”
Marina (12-12, 6-3) had the leadoff batter reach base in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, opting to bunt each time. In the fifth, Eva Mazzotti singled to right field with the runner in scoring position, but the runner was held at third base.
Gutierrez charged a weak ground ball at third for the second out, and left fielder Sienna Shortle plucked a line drive off the bat of Liz Byer out of the air to save at least one run.
After a single by Ava Kim, it was Maryland-bound catcher Gabby DiBenedetto’s turn to advance the runner with a sacrifice bunt in the top of the sixth. Avi Valbuena had a two-out, run-scoring single; Halle Piramo followed with a double to score another run.
“That’s all we can do is ask for the kids to do their best and battle and compete, and I think they did,” said Shelly Luth, who co-coaches Marina along with Dan Hay. “We came up a little short, but when this team plays like that, good things can happen.”
Marina was up 2-0, needing to get just six more outs with its ace twirling a gem in the circle.
“When a pitcher is dominating a team like Mia was dominating this team, their job in the later innings is just get the ball in play,” Hay said. “Those balls that went in the 3-4 hole and up the middle, they could have been 6 feet to the right or left, we would have made the play. They would have been routine grounders. They just happened to have eyeballs on them.”
In a most important of weeks in the Sunset League softball standings, Huntington Beach has earned two signature wins that have given it the inside track to the title. The Oilers have a doubleheader remaining against Newport Harbor (10-14, 2-6) on Thursday. Then they host Corona del Mar (8-15, 0-10) on Monday, closing the regular season at Edison (11-13, 6-5) on Tuesday.
Marina takes on Los Alamitos (14-11, 8-2) at home on Thursday, before finishing with back-to-back games against Newport Harbor next week.
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