2008 Woodie Awards
SOFTBALL: Valley Falls out of First, Lands 6-3 in Conference
The Monarchs softball team gives up an early lead and can't recover in a 6-1 loss to Canyons.
Daniel Srourian
Issue date: 3/29/06 Section: Sports
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Valley starting pitcher Vanessa Hernandez fell behind early, allowing three runs in the first inning and two more in the second.
The story of the game, however, was the offense's inability to counter and get the hits necessary in building a comeback. Valley left a total of nine runners stranded on base en route to the loss, dropping them to third place in the Western State Blue Conference.
"We didn't get the clutch hits we needed," said coach Frankie Garcia after the game. "We simply didn't do what we needed to win."
Canyons cruised through the game behind solid pitching from Ashley Kirk, who was lighting up the radar guns with her pitch speed. She had three strikeouts and gave up nine hits through the full seven innings, and was a headache for Valley all game under the heat.
Valley had runners in scoring position in every inning except the sixth, threatening to spark the offense by hustling for stolen bases and sacrifice bunts. Each inning ended abruptly though because of the solid defense by Canyons, which improved to 9-3 in the conference.
"It wasn't one of the games we're proud of," said Hernandez after the game.
"It was a learning experience, as always, for us," said assistant coach Frank Sotello after the game. "But we'll get 'em. We play them two more times this season. We'll get 'em."
Valley will look to bounce back with crucial conference games in the next two weeks as they gear towards playoff mode. With a 6-3 conference record, they will have to play solid offense and defense if they want to make a return to the postseason. They will play a doubleheader at Bakersfield on Tuesday, March 28 and a home game against Mission on Thursday, March 30.
