Monrovia strikes early and pounds out an 11-4 win over Northview to capture the Northview Softball Tournament title


Above: Northview center fielder Jocelyn Marquez leaps and misses a two run home run by Monrovia’s Sami Saucedo

By Fred J. Robledo, SGVN, twitter.com/sgvtribpreps
The Monrovia High School softball team is young and has struggled to a 1-2-1 start in the competitive Rio Hondo League.

A spring break tournament is exactly what it needed.

The Wildcats gained valuable experience and grew during the Northview tournament this week, beating the host Vikings 11-4 in the championship on Thursday to improve to 10-4-1 overall.

Wildcats coach David Guzman hopes the boost of confidence will get his team going when league resumes next week.

His sophomore pitcher, Adrienne Guerra, gave up four runs on six hits, but she was steady using a variety of pitches to give the Vikings’ fits.

“She’s (Guerra) come a along way,” Guzman said. “Being in the Rio Hondo with (pitchers) Michelle Floyd (San Marino) and Lauren Cox (La Canada), Adrienne doesn’t get a lot of attention. But she’s a great pitcher and she’s at their caliber, no doubt. She works very hard.” (To continue click thread)


Monrovia jumped on top with four runs in the first inning, punctuated with Nikki Guzman’s two-run homer to left.

Guzman was 3-for-4 with four RBIs and Sami Saucedo belted a two-run home run in the third to go with a double and an RBI single in the sixth. Saucedo finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

“It’s nice when your four and five hitters (Guzman and Saucedo, respectively) deliver for you,” David Guzman said. “It’s always important to jump on top of a team. It takes some pressure off your pitcher and you can do the things you like to do.”

Northview didn’t help itself with two errors in the first inning to fall behind, but the Vikings kept battling back.

Haley Gomez singled home two runners in the bottom of the first to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 4-2, and after falling behind 6-2 following Saucedo’s two-run homer in the third, then 8-2 after four innings, Jocelyn Marquez doubled home a pair of runs to trim the Wildcats’ lead to 8-4 in the fifth inning.

But the Wildcats answered again with three runs in the sixth to stretch the lead to 11-4.
Northview dropped to 10-6.

“We’re usually pretty steady in the infield and we make two errors in the first that that put us behind the eight-ball,” Vikings coach Jeff Butler said. “We battled back and thought we were back in it, but our pitcher (Ana Mejia) had a tough day. She wasn’t hitting her spots and they took advantage.

“We can’t dwell on it. We’ve got a big (Valle Vista) league game on Tuesday against San Dimas. We’ll forget about this and move on to the next one.”

Monrovia pounded out 11 hits in all.

Elise McCarthy had a double, single and scored twice and Tanya Galvin was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored.

“It’s always nice to come out and win a tournament,” Guzman said. “The win shows that we’re growing and getting stronger, and anytime you win a tournament, that’s great for your confidence.”

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