{"id":5972,"date":"2026-03-20T16:57:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=5972"},"modified":"2026-03-20T16:57:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:57:56","slug":"trojans-drop-12-2-decision-in-league-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/?p=5972","title":{"rendered":"Trojans drop 12-2 decision in league opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

St. Helena softball squad gunning for a fourth straight league championship in 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

ST. HELENA >> Whether or not St. Helena is the team to beat again this year as a new North Central League I softball race opens, the Saints certainly remain one of the best small-school squads around, and they showed it Thursday with a 12-2, five-inning victory over the Lower Lake Trojans at St. Helena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not the St. Helena team they\u2019ve been, but they\u2019re still really good,\u201d Lower Lake head coach Julie Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake (0-1 league, 1-4 overall) scored single runs in the first two innings \u2013 on a Leanna Ortega RBI groundout in the top of the first and a Kerrington Snyder RBI double in the top of the second \u2013 to open up a 2-1 lead. It was all St. Helena after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After pushing ahead 3-2 with two runs in the bottom of the second, the Saints batted around during an eight-run third inning to go up 11-2. They scored their final run in the fifth, at which point the game was stopped because of the 10-run mercy rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winning pitcher Ada Blanton went the distance, allowing only two hits while striking out five and walking one. Losing pitcher Crystal Pepper gave up seven hits, struck out one and walked four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust the little things we weren\u2019t doing added up,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cOur focus needs to stay on what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a couple of calls didn\u2019t go the way the Trojans wanted, Jackson said it\u2019s important for the Trojans to retain their cool and fight through adversity, not give in to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t decide the game,\u201d Jackson said of a couple of close calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eden Sparks had the other Lower Lake hit in the league opener for both teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unseasonably warm weather combined with playing on St. Helena\u2019s artificial turf field had the Trojans feeling the heat against the three-time defending league champs, figuratively and literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was so hot we had a phone and iPod overheat on the bench,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThe heat was a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sparks\u2019 play at shortstop was among the bright spots for the Trojans, according to Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe made some really good plays,\u201d Jackson said of the freshman. \u201cShe\u2019s just a really, really good softball player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower Lake returns to action Tuesday at home against Kelseyville at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Helena softball squad gunning for a fourth straight league championship in 2026 Lake County Sports on Facebook ST. HELENA >> Whether or not St. Helena is the team to beat again this year as a new North Central League I softball race opens, the Saints certainly remain one of the best small-school squads around, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18,89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972"}],"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=5972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5973,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972\/revisions\/5973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briansumptersports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}