Mariah Bal pitches no-hitter in first game, four-hitter in second game
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FORT BRAGG >> Allowing a combined four hits and one run in back-to-back complete games, Lower Lake High School ace Mariah Bal made the most of her day on the softball diamond Friday as the Lower Lake Trojans went into Fort Bragg and swept a North Central League I varsity doubleheader from the Timberwolves, winning 6-0 in the opener and 2-1 in game two.
Lower Lake (5-3 league, 7-8-1 overall) didn’t overwhelm Fort Bragg (2-7, 4-9), but Bal and company did what was necessary to win both games. About the only thing Bal didn’t get on Friday was that elusive third home run of the season as Lake County’s homer champ from a year ago when she slugged a single-season record of eight just missed game two.
“One of their girls made a running catch into the fence,” Lower Lake co-head coach Julie Jackson said. “She got robbed of another hit (a double) in the game. I think she was more mad about that that anything else.”
Added Jackson, “When you’re hitting the ball well like she was, there’s nothing you can do when a player makes a great play. Those things just happen.”
While the Trojans struggled at times on offense Friday, they did enough, according to Jackson.
“We struggled a little bit,” Jackson said of Lower Lake’s bats, which produced 12 hits between the two games, eight of those in the opener. “That’ the game. It’s a game of failure, but we managed to pull it out.”
Bal made that it easier in game one when she threw a no-hitter at the Timberwolves, striking out 11 and walking two. Lower Lake staked her to a 2-0 with single runs in the third and fourth innings, then broke the game open with a four-run sixth.
Grace Reyes (1-for-3) knocked in two runs while Kerrington Snyder (1-for-3) and Brialyn Anderson also had RBIs. Bal went 1-for-2 and scored twice while Mia Garcia had the only other Lower Lake hit.
Bal faced just three batters over the minimum in shutting down Fort Bragg.
“She was focused, hitting her spots and she and Leanna (Ortega, the Lower Lake catcher) worked well together,” Jackson said.
In the second game, which was airtight from beginning to end, Lower Lake scratched out single runs in the third and fourth innings for a 2-0 lead and Bal made them stand up. Fort Bragg closed to 2-1 in the fifth but could get nothing else.
Ortega and Garcia, both 1-for-3 in game two, drove in Lower Lake’s runs. Heidi Ortega finished 2-for-4 at the plate. Reyes, Anderson, Snyder and Jamiya Lee-Ayers had the other Lower Lake hits.
Katelyn Burbeck tripled and scored in the fifth for Fort Bragg.
Jackson said the Trojans never thought of pitching anyone else but Bal in the doubleheader, especially with the league season passing the midway point – Lower Lake has six games remaining over the next few weeks.
“That was our plan,” Jackson said. “She knew she had a job to do, and she did it.”
The sweep pushed Lower Lake past Kelseyville (5-4) and into sole possession of third place in the league standings. Four of the Trojans’ remaining six league games are against teams with losing records, including a Tuesday home game with Middletown, who the Trojans lost to April 4 in Middletown. Next Friday they travel to St. Helena to face the league-leading Saints (9-0).
“I’m proud of them,” Jackson said of the Trojans. “They really pulled it together today.”
GAME NOTES: Lower Lake turned three double plays on the day … While the Trojans encountered all kinds of rain on their way to and coming home from Fort Bragg, the weather conditions in Fort Bragg were ideal, according to Jackson. “It was beautiful there,” she said … Lower Lake and Fort Bragg are the only two teams that haven’t been 10-runned by powerhouse St. Helena in league play this season. Lower Lake dropped a 7-2 decision to the Saints on April 8 in Lower Lake while Fort Bragg lost 8-0 at St. Helena on April 15. St. Helena has scored a minimum of 10 runs in its other seven league games, all of them decided in five or six innings.
