April 25, 2026

Written by Lana Carlone

NORCO:  After the highly competitive first round matchup with Norco that ended in a one run loss for the Wolves, many expected Friday’s game to be more of the same. And it was until it wasn’t.

After threatening but failing to score in the top of the first with a leadoff single by Addison Christensen, Norco delivered the first blow in the bottom half of that inning taking advantage of a defensive miscue that allowed two runs to score with two outs.

The Wolves trailed by two until the top of the fifth when Lynnette Vu led off with a double to right field. Senior Taylor Anderson followed suit with a double of her own to  bring the game within one but that was as close as the score would get. In the bottom half of the fifth, Norco scored 9 runs on 8 hits and took advantage of some sloppy defense by the Wolves to put the game out of reach. Ryder Bishop took the loss for the Wolves allowing 4 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits while striking out 3.

Sloppy games happen once in a while. Everybody is human. But it’s hard to pull out a win on days like that, and virtually impossible to do so playing anything but your best against Norco. We committed five errors on defense and that doesn’t include the plays we should have made that turned into base hits due to our lack of hustle and heart throughout the game.

We have all the ingredients to beat a quality team like Norco but we didn’t show that today. We have to give credit to them because they usually play pretty flawless softball and give opponents very little help. We beat ourselves big time. The box score doesn’t reflect the quality effort we got on the mound today from both of our pitchers. Ryder threw great but we didn’t make the routine plays nor the flashy ones that we are capable of behind her. Kenzie came in and induced some pop ups that we needed to make outs on but failed to do so. The Norco lineup puts you to the test and we just weren’t ready. It’s disappointing because we know where we fell short but like any loss, it’s an excellent opportunity for growth and grit to make a resurgence at the Den.

The seniors spoke to the team after the game and delivered some quality feedback for everyone to take hold of and apply for the rest of our league play. This is not our last game. It’s simply a bump in the road of what has been an awesome season of King softball. We are eager to see them rebound as a squad next week when we face off against Santiago at home.