La Mirada softball moves one step closer to league title

LA MIRADA >> Not since the 2012 season has the La Mirada High School softball team been this close to a Suburban League title.

La Mirada sophomore pitcher Alexis “Bones” Bonilla may have pitched and hit her way to a league title for the Matadores in a thrilling 5-3 win over visiting Norwalk Friday afteoon.

Actually the right-hander didn’t get a hit in the game, but with La Mirada (16-11, 8-2) leading 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth and freshman Maya Martinez on third, Bonilla laid down a perfect sacrifice suicide squeeze, driving in Martinez to give the Matadores a two-run lead.

The margin of victory may enter into a tie-breaker for the league title or a No. 1 seed heading into the CIF-SS playoffs.

Norwalk, which defeated La Mirada, 3-2, in 15 iings on Wednesday to take a one-game lead in the league standings needed a win to control its own destiny for a league title.

Both teams are now tied atop the standings with two games remaining. If both teams remain tied at the end of the season the first tie-breaker is run differential, which La Mirada now owns by one run.

Norwalk (12-8, 8-2) will play Cerritos twice, while the Matadores take on Bellflower.

“I’m shaking a little bit,” Bonilla said. “At the time I was just thinking ‘Get it down so we could move the ruers over and score the extra run.’ But now that I think about it, wow.

“I just want to do anything to help get the seniors and the rest of the team a league title and get to CIF.”

La Mirada had four players with two hits each, including sophomore third baseman Madison Bogdanovich with a home run and a single. The Matadores had nine hits in the game.

Norwalk, which had nine hits, took a 2-0 lead with a run in the first and third iings. Both runs were knocked in by senior left fielder Briana Lopez (2 for 4), scoring Ashley Ponce (2 for 4) both times.

The Lancers starting pitcher, Breaa Vasquez, who pitched all 15 iings on Wednesday, retired 10 of the first 11 La Mirada batters before Bogdanovich put the Matadores on the board, 2-1, with a solo home run in the fourth iing.

“It felt good to get the team going and I think they fed off of that to hit her (Vasquez),” Bogdanovich said.

La Mirada tied the game 2-2 in the fifth on a single by senior center fielder Nicole Barrow, scoring Kaylee Medrano (two doubles), and scored three times in the sixth.

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“If we play like we’ve been playing, even with the loss (Wednesday) against a great pitcher like her (Vasquez) and our hitting keeps going we’ll be ready for CIF,” La Mirada coach Brent Tuttle said.