Hitting, pitching in sync for La Cañada softball in win over Monrovia
La Cañada High softball pitcher Holly Stoner hasn’t required much run support through Rio Hondo League play this season.
Even so, her team has provided a whole lot of offense.
Such was the case again Tuesday afternoon, as the Spartans complemented a Stoner one-hit shutout with 10 hits in a 7-0 league win at Monrovia.
The victory is the 14th in a row in league for the Spartans (9-3, 5-0 in league), who have taken the first two games of the three-game series versus Monrovia, while having outscored league opponents, 39-2.
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“I think what Holly did best was change her pitching to the liking of the umpire,” La Cañada Coach Chuck Gunter said. “She took what the umpire was giving her and pitched really well. She worked ahead, had them guessing and she had the offense behind her.”
Stoner struck out at least one batter per inning to finish with nine strikeouts, while walking one and hitting one batter.
The lone hit for Monrovia (7-10-1, 3-2) came on a single from senior outfielder Alyssa Salva to lead off the fifth inning. The Wildcats eventually put two runners on, but Stoner escaped with an inning-ending strikeout of Maya Martinez in the hurler’s only rocky inning.
“I worked on getting ahead and getting two strikes as fast as possible,” Stoner said. “With two strikes, they’re going to be guessing what pitch is coming next and that’s what helps me get a lot of pop-ups and strikeouts.”
Of course, Stoner also pitched with the confidence of a healthy lead as the Spartans scored all seven of their runs by the fourth inning.
Spartans shortstop Emily Tinkham played a pivotal role in her team’s success as the sophomore and No. 3 hitter finished two for three with a double, two runs batted in and two runs scored.
Tinkham doubled home Alexis Abboud (one RBI and run scored) and Maddy Reilly in the top of the fourth inning to give the Spartans a 6-0 lead. The next batter, Gillian Arnold, doubled home Tinkham to give La Cañada its 7-0 lead.
In the third, Tinkham walked and moved to second base on a botched fielder’s choice that allowed Arnold to reach base. Three batters later, Tinkham and Arnold scored on a two-out single from Abby Au, which put La Cañada up, 4-0.
“We’ve been struggling with finding the pitch that we want to hit and in this game we finally found it, even with the [umpire] calling balls strikes and strikes balls,” Tinkham said. “We just really found the pitch that we wanted to hit and we did pretty well driving it.”
Aside from La Cañada’s hitting, poor defense haunted Monrovia, particularly in the second inning.
The Wildcats committed back-to-back errors that allowed La Cañada’s Meghan Henry and Au (two for two with two RBI and one run scored) to reach.
Henry’s courtesy runner, Kathleen Knudsen, scored on a wild pitch, while Au came home on a sacrifice fly from Abboud as the Spartans tallied two runs in the second without a hit to jump ahead, 2-0.
Twitter: @campadresports
