Michelle Carew Classic and Livermore Stampede Report
Amador Valley survives while Archbishop Mitty wins a shorty
The Michelle Carew Classic in Anaheim was in its second day of play on Thursday with Amador Valley seeing its first action after not playing on the first day.
Amador Valley (Pleasanton) ace and UCLA-bound Johanna Grauer came into the Carew Classic having pitched 50.1 innings without giving up and earned run, and although she came away from the first two games with an even better streak, it was anything but easy.
In a Thursday morning game Grauer pitched a one-hitter with two walks and 12 fanned as No. 2 ranked Amador Valley opened play with a 5-0 victory over Piedra Vista of Farmington, New Mexico.
Junior Courtney Henning had three RBIs and a run scored and senior Nicole Yozzo had two hits and two runs scored.
In the afternoon game with Murrieta Valley of Murrieta, Grauer pitched a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts and two walks, but it took an RBI single by senior Ashley Lotosynski in the top of the eighth to pull out a 1-0 victory.
“Yes we did. Got a few extra gray hairs yesterday,” emailed Dons head coach Teresa Borchard about pulling out the razor thin win.
According to a report by Carlos Arias of OCSidelines.com, Grauer and Long Beach State-bound Lacey Alderman of Murrieta Valley were locked in a classic pitchers’ duel through seven innings.
Amador Valley didn’t really threaten Alderman until the international tiebreaker rule in the eighth started a runner at second base. Yozzo sacrificed Emily Roskopf to third and Lotosynski came through with the game winner.
Still is wasn’t over.
Murrieta Valley loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth before Morgan Burns hit a blooper to second. Dons second sacker Sammy Salustri made a diving catch and doubled up the runner at first to end the game. Had she not caught the ball two runs would have scored and Murrieta Valley would have won.
“That Grauer is really something but Murrieta Valley is a very good team,” said Tournament Director Lance Eddy.
Grauer is now 9-0 with 103 strikeouts and a 65.1 inning streak of not giving up an earned run.
Amador Valley (9-0) plays Great Oak (7-6) of Temecula in the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.
At the Livermore Stampede that got started on Thursday, and with the Cal-Hi Sports Caravan in attendance, Archbishop Mitty (10-0) beat Sacramento Sheldon, 4-2 in a timed out 4 1/2 inning affair that despite the shortness saw the teams leave a combined 15 runners on base.
Mitty pitcher Desiree Severance scattered seven hits but it wasn’t until the top of the fifth inning that Sheldon was able to break through for its two runs. When she got a come-backer to end the inning and strand the final two of nine Sheldon runners left on base, the Mitty faithful breathed a sigh of relief when the umpire yelled “time.”
“We competed our way out of it and Desiree pitched her way out of it,” Mitty head coach Brian Yocke said.
Severance was in trouble in the first, second and fourth innings and got out of trouble each time before finally faltering in the fifth.
When asked if she liked to pitch out of tight spots the only answer Severance had was a smile and chuckle.
Cal-bound Jazmyn Jackson had a double, and an RBI and a run scored, and she stole a base. She actually stole two bases and would be 11-for-11 this season, but a badly positioned umpire way behind the play called her out on a steal at third when it was clear to everyone in the press box a tag was not even close to applied. Jackson is now hitting .667 this season with 15 RBIs, 20 runs scored and 10 steals.
Junior Danielle Bowers, who is no longer pitching and concentrating on her hitting, had two RBIs and a run scored, and she also stole a base.
Mitty has two games on Friday with Pleasanton Foothill and Livermore Granada.
