and A Triumph of the Braves.
First the good news.
Softball
Lompoc [14-11] 4, Dos Pueblos [16-11] 3 (12 Innings) [Story]
The Braves outlasted the Dos Pueblos Chargers 4-3 in a match-up of two of the best pitchers in the county. Lompoc's Leanna Corral scored the eventual winning run in the top of the 12th inning, breaking a three-all tie that had lasted since the the top of the fifth.
It was neck and neck in the early going - DP took a 1-run lead in the bottom of the second, and Lompoc tied in the top of the third. The Chargers jumped to the lead again with two in the fourth, but the Braves responded with two in their next at bat. To be specific, a Courtney Dosa two run shot over the center field wall. Ashley Herald had clutch hits for the first two Charger RBI's, with the other run scored on one of Brittany King's two doubles.
In the twelfth, Leanna Corral, who entered the game without an extra-base hit this season, alertly stretched a solid single to center into a double when the ball was bobbled. Paty Martinez bunted her over to third, and Dana Campitelli picked up the RBI with a seeing-eye grounder through the circle.
In the blazing heat, DP's ace, and SB County stat leader [14-7, 125 s/o, .350 ERA] Justine Bosio and Lompoc's Carrillo [9-4, 71 s/o, .939 ERA] met head-on. Both starters went the distance, throwing hundreds of pitches (Bosio - 185, Carrillo - 136). Fortunately for Lompoc, Carrillo's pre-season workouts frequently lasted several hours and she did not wilt in the heat.
In the twelve innings she faced 49 batters, giving up 9 hits (3 doubles), walked 2, and struck out 8.
In contrast to the pitching, Lompoc has not been an offensive powerhouse this season. In spite of Dosa's occasional homers (now 4) and Campitelli's .369 batting average (99 points higher than #2 ), the Braves were only outscoring the opposition 84-82 entering the contest, had scored 3 or fewer runs in 16 games, and posted a rather anemic .219 team batting average. What has saved them has been tremendous clutch pitching, timely defense and an almost miraculous ability to get out of trouble late in games. All three were on display on Friday.
Lompoc was in escape mode for most of the game. One of their bigger challenges being to slow down the Chargers offensive battery of Bosio and catcher Janielle Wong. Wong leads the county with a .484 average, while Bosio is seventh (.396), and both have 3 homers. In the bottom half of the fifth, Campitelli prevented a run by snaring a shot at first base. In the sixth, after Wong doubled, Brittany King was then robbed of a hit on a shot to center by Elicity Fabing. In the seventh, Paty Martinez duplicated the thievery, snuffing out a DP rally by ploughing up dirt to get to a Bosio burner with a runner on base. And in the 8th, DP had an apparent walk-off homer that turned into an long out instead .
And so to the ninth. A one out single is followed by a bunt back to Carrillo who throws to second for the force - two down. And then simple pop-up for out number three - oops, no. It's dropped and the Chargers have runners on the corners with Bosio at the plate. She hit a sharp grounder to Dosa at third who, despite a bobble, still threw out Bosio for the third out. In the 10th & 11th DP had two more 'warning-track' shots, one a Bosio launch to left in the 10th, and another in the 11th swallowed up by Fabing in center.
Both Bosio & Wong are college bound, Bosio to St Mary's (softball) and Wong to SBCC for basketball & softball. Neither of the Braves seniors (Corral & Dosa) are known to have announced college plans.
Lompoc now hosts Division IV #1 Seed La Quinta, 15-0 winners over Magnolia, at 3:15 on Tuesday. Marcie Borchard's Blackhawks [21-5, 15-0] dominated the Desert Valley League and have lost only once after losing four of their first six. That lone 4-1 loss to Camarillo at the Thousand Oaks tourney in late April, was followed in the competition by an 8-3 victory over Righetti. They also have a young team - 2 seniors, 4 juniors, 5 sophomores, and 1 freshman. They have 9 of the 12 hitting over .300, led (among the regulars) by Priscilla Velasquez at .407 (.480 OBP, .512 SLG) and Brianna Luna .395 (.520 OBP, .711 SLG). Defensively they have committed 35 errors in 949 chances for a .963 fielding percentage. They have used three primary pitchers this year, allowing only 34 earned runs (54 total) on the season. Senior Jasmine Braxton has led the team in ERA (6-0, .857 in 49 innings), Senior Priscilla Velasquez was second (1.159, 6-3 in 48.1 innings), but the primary weapon has been sophomore Bryana Walker (1. 335 ERA, 9-1 plus a save in 78.2 innings). Walker, however, has only pitched in three of six LQ games in May. She did pitch against Magnolia.
Other LPL action:
Templeton 4, Orange 0 [The Eagles travel to Indio on Tuesday]
Riverside Rowland 3, St. Joseph 2 (10 Innings)
Mission Hills Alemany 9, Morro Bay 0
Baseball
Culver City 2, Lompoc 1 [Story]
Cody Berryman pitched a great game. It was not enough. The Brave defense allowed two runs in the sixth inning without Berryman giving up a hit. Lompoc had a total of five defensive errors on the day, and a wide variety of other mistakes that spoiled Berryman's effort. Apart from Brandon Alonzo's leadoff homer in the first, the Braves offense was ineffective as many of the runners that did get on were erased via double plays or stolen base attempts that went awry. Berryman had a double in his own support, and Dalton Rouleau was 2-2 with a walk.
Other LPL action:
Patriot 2, Santa Ynez 0
St. Joseph 8, La Habra 7
Tennis
CIF SS Individual Tournament
Lompoc junior Alex Jensen, Singles Champion of the Los Padres League , drew a first-round bye, then lost 6-3, 7-5 to Dos Pueblos' Sasha Guryasnov (#2 seed Channel League) in the second round.
No comments:
Post a Comment