Foothill Minor softball no-hits Burbank for title win

In the championship game of the Tri-Cities Little League District 16 Minor Softball Tournament of Champions, the Foothill Explosions were on the cusp of the title while Burbank Ruthless was looking to force a final showdown.

There would be no more games to play, as the Explosions had two pitchers combine for a no-hitter in a 6-1 victory and the Tri-Cities Minor softball title Sunday afternoon at the Tujunga Little League Fields.

“It has been a great season,” Explosions manager Ken Combs said. “The team is new with a lot of first-year players for softball. They all pulled together and it has been an absolute honor to coach them.”

Explosions pitchers Natalie Minkler and Carley Mulcahey held the Ruthless without a hit in the five innings played before the game reached its time limit.

“Our pitchers, they ate their Wheaties today,” Combs said. “They brought it.”

Minkler drew the start and finished with five strikeouts. She pitched the first, third and fourth innings, notching one, three and one strikeouts, respectively. Mulcahey pitched the second and the fourth, recording three strikeouts of her own.

“I was scared going into this game because it was the championship and if we lost and lost tomorrow we won’t win, so I was scared,” Minkler said.

After both teams scored a run in the opening frame, it became a tight pitchers’ duel. The deadlock was broken in the top of the fifth, when the Explosions lived up to their name and scored five runs, the maximum allowed in one inning in Minor softball.

In the pivotal fifth, the Ruthless pitchers had major control problems in the circle. The first six Explosions batters reached base without the benefit of a hit. The first two walked , followed by a hit batter. The next walk forced in the go-ahead run. That was followed by another run-scoring walk and another hit batter to bring home another run. The fourth run also came on a walk before the Explosions got their first hit of the inning when Mulcahey hit a double.

“I just really had faith we could do it all the time,” Mulcahey said.

Ruthless hurler Kayla Orozco was dominant in the circle for her three innings of work, which is the maximum allowed under the rules. She had eight strikeouts, pitching the first, third and fourth innings.

“We don’t have a secondary pitcher and the league limits the girls to three per,” Ruthless manager Peter Orozco said.

The first run of the contest came in the top of the first, when Jazmin Combs smoked a triple down the first-base line for an RBI with two out. Ruthless answered in the bottom of the inning, when Valentina Morales drove in her team’s lone run on a groundout.

Thursday in the opening game of the tournament, the Explosions won, 9-8. Ruthless came back from the loss with an 11-9 win over Tujunga on Saturday to earn their second shot at the Explosions hoping to force another game, but it was not to be.

“Our effort was there. Our pitching was there. Where our struggle was was we didn’t hit as well as we usually do,” Orozco said. “It was a great game and [the Explosions] are a great team.”