Despite a rough start at the Red Hots Classic softball tournament last weekend, the Southern Oregon Coast Softball 18-and-under A team bounced back to go .500 over four games.

SOCS started off the two-day tourney at Erv Lind Stadium at Portland State University with a devastating 10-0 loss in five innings to the aptly-named Oregon City Nightmare.

“It was an early-morning game, and we were just flat,” said coach Floyd Montiel.

SOCS was held hitless in the game, and gave up one run in the first inning, but both teams were scoreless until the fourth when the Nightmare reeled of nine runs to prematurely end the game.

The second Saturday game was the polar opposite result for SOCS, as the South Coast squad trashed the Red Hots 14-0 in four innings via the 10-run rule.

Pitcher Molly Hockema threw 10 strikeouts from the mound and Amanda Volgarino, Lauryn Lesina and Jessica Ott had home runs in the game. Hockema also tallied a triple in the win.

“By the afternoon game, we were a little more loose,” said Montiel.

Sunday found SOCS up against Hillsboro’s Rip City ball club, and SOCS came out on top 4-1 due to solid pitching and defense.

Alyssa Bergquist started at pitcher in the victory, racking up eight strikeouts in six innings.

After falling behind 1-0 after the first inning, SOCS brought three runs home in the second and sealed the deal with one more in the sixth. As a team, SOCS had eight hits in the game.

Amelia Liggett had a double from the plate.

“That was probably the best game of the weekend,” said Montiel.

SOCS fell in the afternoon matchup, however, losing 5-2 to the Cyclones of Tri Cities, Wash.

The game was evenly matched, with the Cyclones outhitting SOCS 8-6 and scoring all five of their runs in the third inning. Lesina had a double for SOCS.

Overall, Montiel said the team is starting to jell.

“We’ve seen some things come together,” he said. “As a coaching staff, we were happy about where we were at on Sunday.”

Bergquist and Volgarino led SOCS with four hits each during the weekend, while Volgarino, Hockema and Lesina each scored three runs. Lesina and Volgarino each drove in four runs. Jessie Goergen had three hits, stole two bases, scored twice and drove in two runs.