By Ed Piper
Jacey Taylor is hitting the softball at a .581 clip with five home runs, leading the Vikings with 33 RBI.
"I'm just trying to wait for my pitch," said the lefthanded first baseman/power-hitter before La Jolla's home tilt against Lincoln Wed., April 23. "Hitting fourth, I try to hit behind the runner."
So Jacey is not averse to hitting to all fields, instead of pulling the ball to right field. One of her home runs was a high fly into the palm fronds in the left-centerfield dirt patch past the home run barrier.
As a junior, Taylor has matured and gained the confidence to pound the ball where she wants it.
The first baseman doesn't lead the Vikings in home runs, though. "Nat(alie Alvarez) has six," back-to-fulltime head coach Anthony Sarain said. Alvarez, the younger sister of former Viking standouts Stephanie and Emily, also has driven in 21 runs, second on the team.
He also noted that there are five players besides JC who are hitting .400 or higher, and another four hitting .300. The .400 hitters include senior third baseman Roxie Metcalf (.489), senior centerfielder Savannah Putnam (.476), junior second baseman Maddie Ehlert (.429), and sophomore Emily Hernandez (.400).
Metcalf, the four-year veteran captain of La Jolla's squad, also has14 RBI's to rank third on the team.
Hitting over .300 are sophomore catcher Aviv Laska (.362), sophomore Alvarez (.362), sophomore Jianna Diaz (.333), and freshman shortstop Ella Pearl (.321).
La Jolla hasn't had an offensive mix like that in recent history. The welfare of the team, though, depends "on when the pitching shows up," said Sarain. Through pregame warmups, he reminded multiple position players of when their number would come up in the pitching circle, depending on how the game went.
The Vikings have new uniforms, so the jersey number they each individually picked go along with the "new numbers" the team is putting up on the offensive side.
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