OTHELLO — A five-run bottom of the third inning surged the Othello Huskies in their non-league matchup against Wenatchee on Wednesday, defeating the Panthers 10-0 in five innings.

“We were preparing for a good pitching staff, which we got,” Othello Head Coach Alyssa Martinez said. “The pitchers that we faced were pretty good – we’ve been focusing a lot on hitting in practice, which paid off in our game. We had quite a few hits.”

Othello racked up 16 hits in the win, including a three-hit day by freshman Alexa Prochet. Joining Prochet in the multi-hit department were senior Miccaela Valdez, senior Amarie Guzman, senior Persayis Garza, senior Naraiah Guzman and junior Kaelee Valdez, who all recorded two hits.

Othello went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first on a bases-loaded walk, but couldn’t get any additional runs with runners in scoring position in the remainder of the first and second innings. 

“We were leaving baserunners on in the first and second, and we just couldn’t finish,” Martinez said. “Some of that was on base running errors, but talking to the girls in between innings (we said) ‘We’ve got to be more aggressive.’”

The first three batters got on base to open the bottom of the third, leading to a five-run inning with RBI by Valdez, Prochet and senior Faith Ruelas to go up 6-0. Garza opened up the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run, her fifth of the early season.

Martinez said Garza’s success stems from a focus on hitting the ball hard in practice.

“I think she’s adapting that really well, and she’s got this swag and this confidence to her,” Martinez said. “... She’s got this demeanor about her that allows her to just do whatever she needs to do at the plate.”

In the circle, Amarie Guzman surrendered two hits and struck out 12 of the 16 Wenatchee batters she faced.

“She had faced, before (Wednesday) night, 92 batters and had 47 strikeouts,” Martinez said. “She’s killing it out there; she’s been pitching for a long time, and my assistant coach was a college pitcher too, so we’re working on pitching for probably 45 minutes to an hour. These pitchers are putting in that much time after we’ve already been practicing for an hour and a half.”

Othello improves to 5-1 with the win and returns to the diamond for a standalone game against Richland on Thursday at noon. It’s Othello’s last non-league game before a two-week stretch of Central Washington Athletic Conference games. 

Martinez said it’s important to learn from non-league games against challenging opponents.

“We know that they’re going to have a pitching staff, we know that they’re going to have hitting,” Martinez said. “Just focus on how to move past when we make mistakes. Softball’s not meant to be perfected. How do we move on and get better from whatever is happening, and make those adjustments throughout the game to get better?”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

WEN: 0-0-0-0-0 0

OTH: 1-0-5-2-2 10

    Othello senior Amarie Guzman pitches during a game against Shadle Park last season. Guzman struck out 12 batters in Othello’s game against Wenatchee on Wednesday.