Benicia High’s varsity softball team wasn’t at the top of its game at the Livermore Stampede late last week, and it cost the Lady Panthers their first set-backs of the season.

The Lady Panthers, who entered the tournament undefeated, beat Cosumnes Oaks in Thursday’s opener but lost two games on Friday and another on Saturday before closing things out with a convincing 15-0 victory over San Ramon Valley.

The tournament left Benicia 13-3 overall on the season.

“We made some errors we typically don’t make and we weren’t hitting the ball all that well,” said Benicia manager Kristin Grubbs. “There were just a few situations when we didn’t play well and sometimes you have those kinds of games.”

Granada handed Benicia its first loss of the year with a 9-3 victory on Friday. Later in the day, Benicia rallied back from a two-run deficit against Monte Vista with four runs in the sixth inning, only to see the Lady Mustangs rally for three runs in the seventh to win it, 5-4.

A 5-2 loss to Castro Valley early Saturday morning was Benicia’s third straight defeat.

But the Lady Panthers completely dominated San Ramon Valley, scoring nine runs in the fourth inning and five more in the fifth to blow things open. Olivia DeJesu, McKenna Gregory and Brianna Schlattman each hit home runs for the Lady Panthers. Schlattman and Allie Bullock each had three hits, with Gregory, Katie Vretzos and Victoria Mackey each adding two hits.

Gregory pitched a five-inning shutout and allowed only two hits.

“I think we learned a lot from it and we’ll bounce back even better than before,” Grubbs said.

Benicia plays at Pioneer in a non-league on Tuesday and hosts Vanden for a key Solano County Athletic Conference game on Thursday. The Lady Panthers currently sit atop the SCAC with a 5-0 record while Vanden is 5-1 – its only loss coming against Benicia in Fairfield back on March 17.

Sharing is caring!