It was a career day for San Lorenzo Valley High junior Bella Reynolds who put on a fireworks display Tuesday afternoon with not one, but three home runs.
The standout infielder batted 3-for-4 including three solo blasts for the Cougars in their 6-1 win against Scotts Valley High in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play.
What’s the secret, one may ask.
“My coach told me to choke up on the bat and move up in the box, it just worked since then,” she said.
The second dinger was a line drive well on its way out. The first and third homers barely cleared the fence, including the final one in the sixth inning that saw the ball fighting against the late-winter winds.
SLV coach Mark Brown said it was the second time he’d seen a player hit three home runs in a single game.
The first time happened just last week in the Cougars’ loss to Aptos High. Mariners’ outfielder Mileena Carbajal hit three long balls, including a grand slam.
SLV catcher Olivia Renouf and the rest of the team managed to brush off that loss. She batted 2-for-4 at the plate, and on defense she had an amazing tag at home plate that prevented the Falcons from scoring a run.
Utility player Angie Fulkerson batted 1-for-3, earned a walk and scored a run.
Alyssa Struthers batted 2-for-4 and recorded an RBI for the Cougars, and pitcher Amelia Sizemore hit a sacrifice grounder in the infield for an RBI.
Sizemore also recorded a pair of strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work in the circle. She allowed five walks and an earned run on four hits.
Brown was especially proud of getting the win because the past two years have been difficult, starting with the Covid-19 pandemic that cut short the 2019-20 season.
Brown said this is all new to the freshmen and sophomores. Yet, it’s been good for them to get through a higher level of play, learn about it and grow.
“Right now we have a young squad, so we’re just building confidence and having them believe in themselves,” Brown said. “I think we’re making progress. They’re starting to click as a team and figuring each other out, it’s good.”
SLV’s squad includes pitcher Abigale Krepelka, utility player Anaya Sutcliffe, outfielder Cheyenne Owen, utility player Jersey Collins, pitcher and second baseman/outfielder Alison Reger, infielder Erika Kindred, third baseman Fallyn Lachmund and pitcher and infielder Jori Fields-Rapley.
“The group of girls is just amazing,” Reynolds said. “We all click real well, we’ve all been playing for years. So we kind of knows how we work.”
Reynolds admits the beginning of the season got off to a bumpy start because of the incoming players, including several freshmen.
“We’re here to fight, we’re here to play,” she said.
Once upon a time, Reynolds was in the same shoes as the underclassmen when she joined the varsity team as a freshman. She knows how tough that transition can be and how much faster the speed of the game becomes.
“I don’t see necessarily as an issue, I see it more as a learning curve,” Reynolds said. “It’s just getting those young girls up and ready to play. But we’re good.”
One of the biggest goals for Reynolds going into the season was to become a leader on the team, hoping to gain their respect and in return give them the respect they deserve.
“I wanted people to come ask me questions,” she said. “I also wanted to have a good season for myself. I’ve always wanted to up my game, I always want to get better.”
Reynolds definitely had a breakout moment Tuesday afternoon.
“Bella’s doing a great job and that’s one of the processes of these young kids, is they have to figure out how to be a leader and it’s their own style,” Brown said. “This is when Bella is starting to take the team, so to speak.”
Scotts Valley coach Rick Reyes said they had some scoring opportunities with runners in scoring position, but they just couldn’t get a clutch hit.
Falcons catcher Taylor Ezgar had the hot bat for Scotts Valley, batting 3-for-3 at the plate.
Reyes said they’re a young team but they’re also moving in the right direction. He mentioned that the past couple of years have been a little rough, but this season eight promising freshmen came on board, including starting pitcher Taylor Wilson, who recorded two strikeouts and allowed five earned runs on 10 hits in 6.2 innings pitched in Tuesday’s loss to the Cougars.
“Their skill level is certainly much stronger than what we’ve had these last few years,” Reyes said. “That’s the encouraging part.”
The rest of the Falcons’ roster is a majority of sophomores mixed with a dash of juniors and seniors.
The squad includes Kylie Alvarez, Charlotte Bell, Kayla Brown, Gracie Delgado, Jazmyn Doubek, Ava and Ellen Eagle, Sofia Grigg, Alysa Harrington, Abby Howell, Amelia Lock, Nicole and Kristen Powell, Claire Skinner, Audrey Watson and Alesha Wooten.
Reyes said part of the challenge for having a young team is learning how to win. He said most of the players have experience playing travel ball and he’s watching them progress as the season moves forward.
“They’re used to playing at their age group,” Reyes said. “Now they’re stepping up and playing against juniors and seniors. Some of them are actually college-bound players.”
Reyes said it’s part of the learning process and the good thing is that the players are acquiring the skills and being competitive at the same time.
“That makes it fun,” he said.
