Lady Cards win diamond battle with Trojans

Big innings were the rule of the day in Orland on Wednesday, and six-run outbursts in the 1st and the 7th innings propelled Corning High to a 15-8 victory over the Lady Trojans.

While the big innings were a blessing for Corning, they've also proved to be a curse in the early going.

"That's been a problem so fat this year. We'll have one good inning in a game. We stepped it up late," said Corning coach Kirk Jennings.

The game couldn't have started any better for the Lady Cardinals (3-3) as Mackenzie Peterson dropped a bunt single and Kaitlin Cox followed with a single. Peterson crossed the plate on a wild pitch, and Cox stole home on a designed play when Erica Rivera walked and kept on running to draw a throw, which enabled Cox to scamper home.

With two outs, Rachel Bentz stroked a 2-run single, and scored herself ahead of Rachel Silva, who lined a shot past the leftfielder and kept running for a 2-run inside-the park homer.

Corning made it 7-0 in the 2nd when Baylie Fryar singled and was tripled in by Raylee Sutfin.

To the Lady Trojans' credit, they were not quite ready to just pack it up.

After holding Corning scoreless in the top of the 3rd, Orland showed off their plate discipline by waiting out six walks. Karlee Aguiar and Jada Gibbs-England got RBI's the easy way by drawing walks with the bases full, and Sierra Syh drove in another with an infield single. Stacey Ramirez drove a ball into rightfield hard enough that she was thrown out at first by Rivera, but a run also scored to made the score 7-5.

Orland scored single runs in the 4th and 6th inning, but Corning also scored once in the 5th and 6th innings, making the score 9-7 entering the final frame.

The Lady Cardinals recorded five singles in the 7th inning, with Bentz driving in another run and Kimmy White bringing a run home with a sacrifice fly.

Aguiar singled and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning, but reliever Cheyenne Boles was able to close it out for the Cardinals.

The eight runs established a new season-high for Orland (0-3), but coach Kevin Kibby was more pleased than surprised.

"They're starting to put it together, they're a very green team. They're starting to listen to their coaches and they're starting to figure it out," he said. "This is really big for them to come out and play some defense, get some timely hitting and actually play as a team."

Corning had 16 hits in the game, but Jennings said he'd still like to see them be more selective at the plate.

"It seemed like at times we took strikes and swung at balls. They're taking fat pitches and then we're swinging when we get behind in the count and chasing balls out of the strike zone," the coach said.

Corning began a string of nine games in 11 days by playing in the weekend's tournament at Pleasant Valley.

Orland is also in action in the 6th annual Small Schools Tournament at Big League Dreams in Redding.

CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.