CHINO HILLS — Since the last time the Etiwanda and Chino Hills softball teams met, Chino Hills’ offense has been one of the hottest around, scoring 34 runs in three games.
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Chino Hills’ Nadia Juarez pitches during a Baseline League softball game against Etiwanda on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Photo by Milka Soko, Contributing Photographer)
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Chino Hills’ Nadia Juarez pitches during a Baseline League softball game against Etiwanda on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Photo by Milka Soko, Contributing Photographer)
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So slowing down Chino Hills’ leadoff hitter Kyler Del Duca seems like a good way toward stopping the Huskies’ offense.
That was easier said than done.
Del Duca set a career high in runs and RBIs and tied a career high in hits in an 11-4 rout of Etiwanda on Wednesday afternoon.
Chino Hills (16-8 overall, 5-1 league) moves past Etiwanda (19-3, 4-1) for first place by a half game in the Baseline League. Chino Hills has two league games remaining, while Etiwanda has three.
Del Duca went 4 for 4 with a walk, two home runs, a double, four RBIs and four runs. Her second home run, a three-run shot, gave Chino Hills a 9-4 lead in the sixth inning.
“My approach was to just stay strong and to attack anything I was ready for,” Del Duca said. “I knew they had some good pitchers and they were going to go in and out, but I just wanted to stay strong and attack whatever was there.”
Del Duca now has six home runs this season, five of which have come in the last four games.
“She was relaxed,” Chino Hills coach Richard Gaither said of Del Duca. “That’s the biggest thing. If she’s not relaxed, she starts to fly out.”
Del Duca faced four different pitchers, as Etiwanda tried to slow down the Huskies’ offense.
They started with ace Alyssa Galindo, but the Eagles knew she would not be able to threw deep into the game as she only recently returned to pitching after suffering an elbow injury.
Galindo went the first three innings, allowing two runs on four hits before she was replaced by Kimmy Aleman.
“That’s about where she’s at right now, rehabbing and everything,” Etiwanda coach Adrianna Brown said of Galindo’s three innings. “We were playing it by ear, seeing how she feels.”
While Etiwanda’s four pitchers — Alyssa Galindo, Aleman, Mya Coleman and Malaiyha Galindo (no relation to Alyssa) — struggled, Brown felt the Eagles’ offense could have done more to help.
After Chino Hills scored a run in the first, Etiwanda took its only lead of the game at 2-1 when Brianna Gutierrez hit a two-run home run with no outs in the second inning.
“We expected them to hit,” Brown said of the Huskies. “But we got the lead on them and we were still a little flat. We can hit with them… (but) our mental game was not on par today.”
Del Duca’s first home run, in the third inning, tied the score 2-2, and the Huskies took the lead for good in the fourth on an RBI single by Lyla Gonzalez and a two-run homer by Jocelyn Garcia.
Trailing 6-2, Etiwanda did answer with back-to-back home runs by Dailynn Battee and Amani McField in the fifth inning before Chino Hills put the game away with a five-run sixth.
McField, a junior who batted second and went 1 for 3, was playing her first game for Etiwanda following a transfer from Aquinas.
“She brings a lot of intensity, which is good,” Brown said of McField. “I think we need that.”
Unlike Etiwanda, Chino Hills needed only one pitcher: Nadia Juarez, who pitched a six-hitter.
The win greatly improves Chino Hills’ chances at a league title, but both Etiwanda and Chino Hills still have to play Upland, a team that lost to Etiwanda and Chino Hills by a combined four runs in the first round in league.
“We’ve always had the one-game approach,” Gaither said. “We don’t look ahead.”
