ORANGE — Orange Lutheran’s Rylee Silva provided the power in the circle and Madelyn Armendariz and Carlie Snyder provided the power at the plate as the Lancers rolled to a 10-0 victory over Millikan in the opening round of the CIF-SS Division 1 softball playoffs Friday at Orange Lutheran High School.
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The contest ended after 4 1/2 innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
The Lancers (20-8), ranked No. 2 in Orange County, play Chino Hills in the second round of the playoffs Saturday at Orange Lutheran. The Huskies defeated El Modena, 2-1, in the first round.
Silva threw hard and attacked the Rams’ hitters, striking out seven and allowing two hits with no walks over four innings. Jo Marsh came in to pitch the fifth inning for the Lancers
Six of Silva’s seven strikeouts came on swinging third strikes.
“She was on today,” Lancers coach Steve Miklos said. “She is a gamer. She kind of has that ‘it’ factor where she wants to be in charge and you see her presence on the field.”
The best scoring chance for the Rams (26-9) came in the fourth when they had runners on first and second with one out. But Silva got the next two hitters on a strikeout and a groundout.
“My mindset was that if a runner gets on, I’m not letting them score, no matter what,” Silva said.
The Lancers had a 1-0 lead with two outs and two runners on base in the second when Armendariz belted a three-run home run that left the park just inside the right field foul pole.
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“When I’m in that position with two outs, I just want to hit the ball hard,” Armendariz said. “If I hit the ball hard, something good is going to happen.”
Armendariz, the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, went 3 for 3 with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Snyder hit a two-run home run in the third on a high fly ball to left field that bounced off the top of the wall and went over the fence.
Snyder went into the at-bat with instructions to lay down a sacrifice bunt.
“I missed the bunt on the first pitch,” Synder said. “Then I (said to myself), it’s time to lock in and get a hit for my team right now. She pitched one middle-in but I think she missed her spot. As soon as I hit it, I thought I just popped it up, but then hit ended up hitting the top of the wall and going out.”
Cate Medvitz singled home the Lancers’ first run and Mia Scott’s RBI single in the fourth drove in the 10th run.
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