{"id":3159,"date":"2025-04-30T14:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T14:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=3159"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T14:48:06","slug":"bal-trojans-blank-middletown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=3159","title":{"rendered":"Bal, Trojans blank Middletown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clear Lake, Kelseyville, Upper Lake drops North Central League I softball games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lake County Sports on Facebook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOWER LAKE >> Mariah Bal pitched her third shutout in the last four games Tuesday afternoon as the Lower Lake Trojans blanked the Middletown Mustangs 7-0 in North Central League I softball action at Lower Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bal has allowed only one run and seven hits over her last four starts. She has been backed by some solid defense as well, including a 6-3 double play on Tuesday as shortstop Brialyn Anderson gloved a low line drive and threw on to first base to double up the runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She’s definitely on with her pitching and she has a great defense working behind her,” Lower Lake co-head coach Tara Downey said of Bal. \u201cIt helps when the defense is working so well together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Downey gave high marks to play of both her middle infielders, shortstop Anderson and second baseman Kerrington Snyder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHer glove is on fire this year,\u201d Downey said of Anderson. \u201cAnd Kerrington has been solid in the field for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trojans (6-3 league, 8-8-1 overall) also banged out 10 hits in support of Bal, including a 3-for-3 day by Jamiya Lee-Ayers, who doubled twice and drove in a run. One of those doubles just missed being a home run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur bats are on,\u201d Downey said with an eye toward the Trojans\u2019 next game on Friday in St. Helena against the undefeated Saints (10-0). \u201cEven some of the girls who weren\u2019t hitting the ball well early on are starting to heat up now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heidi Ortega went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Aly Aguirre went 2-for-3 with a RBI for the Trojans. Anderson (1-for-3) also knocked in a run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown fell to 2-8 in league play and 5-10 overall. The Mustangs did not report their game statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middletown hosts Fort Bragg on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other league softball action Tuesday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Bragg 5, Clear Lake 4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Fort Bragg, after Clear Lake took a 4-3 lead with a run in the top of the seventh, the Fort Bragg Timberwolves scored twice in the bottom half for a walk-off victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake (2-5 league, 6-6 overall) led 3-0 before Fort Bragg (3-7, 5-9) tied it with two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t hit the ball very well,\u201d Clear Lake head coach Scott Schaefers said. \u201cWe had the bases loaded in the third with one out and didn\u2019t score.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake took a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh when Faith McIntire walked, stole second, advanced to third on a grounder and scored on an errant pickoff throw by the Fort Bragg catcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Bragg\u2019s first two runners in the bottom of the seventh reached base on a walk and a single, and both ended up scoring, all with no outs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atiana Patino of Clear Lake and Andrea Escobedo of Fort Bragg both pitched complete games. Patino struck out nine and walked three while Escobedo struck out four and walked six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindee Bingham went 2-for-4 for the Cardinals while Cali Albaum (1-for-4) drove in two runs. Patino had the other Clear Lake hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailey Ross (2-for-4, RBI) and Escobedo (1-for-2, RBI) both doubled for the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clear Lake travels to Cloverdale on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Helena 16, Kelseyville 2 (5 inn.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At St. Helena, after scoring the game\u2019s first two runs, the Kelseyville Knights were never heard from again in a five-inning loss to the undefeated and league-leading St. Helena Saints (10-0, 16-4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got two on the board in the top of the first, then it was crickets after that,\u201d Kelseyville head coach Brittany Rumfelt said. \u201cWe had some positives, but they were definitely outweighed by the negatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelseyville starting pitcher Ashlyn Wurm allowed eight runs in her 3 1\/3 innings, striking out one and walking four. Ada Blanton worked four innings for the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan Rogers (1-for-1, RBI) and Aubree Sperber (1-for-2, RBI) drove in Kelseyville\u2019s runs. Wurm and Vanessa Reyes had the only other Kelseyville hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahlia Smith went 2-for-4 with five RBIs for the Saints, who are closing in on a third straight league championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Knights (5-5 league, 5-9 overall) slipped back to the .500 mark in league play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are rebuilding a culture, and things are constantly shifting,\u201d Rumfelt said. \u201cWe are not there yet, but we will get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale 13, Upper Lake 3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Upper Lake, the Upper Lake Cougars (1-6, 4-7) made it through the entire seven innings against the Cloverdale Eagles (7-2, 15-2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloverdale scored three times in the top of the seventh to extend its lead into double digits. Ronni Hatcher sparked the Eagles a double, home run and three RBIs while Camryn Bird went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars had seven hits off winning pitcher Charlotte Burchett. Addison Vipond went 2-for-2 while Hope Marcks (1-for-3) and Leyla Marcks (1-for-4) drove in runs. Tracey Walker, Angelina Rivera and Ashlyn Rhodes also had hits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aimee Schaefers pitched a complete game, striking out six and walking six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upper Lake hits the road Friday to play Kelseyville. Cloverdale returns home Friday to host Clear Lake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clear Lake, Kelseyville, Upper Lake drops North Central League I softball games Lake County Sports on Facebook LOWER LAKE >> Mariah Bal pitched her third shutout in the last four games Tuesday afternoon as the Lower Lake Trojans blanked the Middletown Mustangs 7-0 in North Central League I softball action at Lower Lake. Bal has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,20,58,24,17,18,19,89,59,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3160,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions\/3160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}