Prior to a nonleague softball game against the Hood River Valley High Eagles, the Mountain View Cougars probably felt confident about their chance to get a win on April Fool’s Day. Mountain View had home field advantage and a more experienced squad with six seniors.
The Cougars probably felt like it was an April Fool’s Day joke and perhaps thought the Eagles did indeed send a junior varsity squad to the matchup. After all, the young Eagle squad, in part, consists of seven freshmen and just one senior, Madé Vallejo.
But it was the freshmen trio of Haylee Baker (1-for-3, single), Emily Curtis and Lauren Decker who had the biggest impact on the game, helping lead the Eagles to a 9-6 win on Friday at Mountain View High School in Bend.
“We played good and we demonstrated a potent offense with 11 hits, while we executed a vast array of solid hit and run situations and bunts to help us be successful,” said HRV Head Coach Eric Keller. “We had a really good complete game pitching performance by Lauren Decker.”
Decker had a sharp performance in the pitching circle with seven strikeouts, three walks and she allowed seven hits and just one earned run. Decker had a solid hitting effort too as she batted 1-for-4, with a single, walk and two runs scored.
The Eagles (6-4) got a 1-0 advantage in the second inning, highlighted by an RBI single by Curtis (2-for-4), driving home Hannah McNerney, who earlier drew a walk.
Aided by a Cougar error, HRV then extended the margin with a three-run third inning rally. A sacrifice RBI groundout by Kaylin Winans and an RBI single by Zoe Munn (3-for-4, three singles) helped propel the Eagles in front 4-0.
Mountain View (2-7) responded with a four-run rally, aided by two Eagle errors, to knot it 4-4 in the fourth inning. The Eagles answered with a three-run fifth, while capitalizing on two Cougar errors to regain the lead.
Munn, who was the first of eight Eagle batters in the inning, ignited the rally with a leadoff single. Three batters later, Makena Zeller ripped an RBI single, driving home Lorena Johnson, a pinch runner for Munn, making it 5-4. The Eagles’ momentum continued as they plated two more runs to build a 7-4 lead after five.
In the sixth, HRV extended its lead to 8-4 on McNerney’s sacrifice fly RBI. Mountain View answered with a run in the bottom half of the frame to make it 8-5. Both squads added a run in the seventh for the final margin.
The Eagles have just two preseason games remaining before beginning their 12-game Columbia River Conference schedule April 16 with a home doubleheader versus the defending league champion Pendleton Buckaroos. HRV (11-16 overall in 2015) finished third in the four-team CRC with a 4-8 record a year ago and qualified for a play-in game.
“Our league is going to be incredibly tough, everyone is playing well and all four teams are playing solid softball,” said Keller. “It’s going to be a tough grind, like it always is. We have a very strong league and it’s going to be a challenge, but we’re hoping to finish in the top three of the standings.”
The CRC is certainly one of the strongest in 5A softball, as Pendleton, The Dalles and Hermiston are ranked in the top 10, with HRV nearly joining that elite group at No. 11.
The Eagles were hoping to extend their win streak to three in Tuesday’s road game at Banks (results unavailable at press time). HRV’s next contest is at 4:30 p.m. Friday at home versus the Tigard Tigers (6-3) at Westside.
Commented