Corning 9-10 softball team third at sections

Corning Little League’s Minor Girls All-Star team placed third in the Section 2 Tournament, which was held in McArthur. Corning won two games and lost two, under coaches Roy Cox, Jason Armstrong and Emily Cox, for the league’s best finish at this level in years.

Redwood Empire 14

Corning 6

Corning battled back from a 10-run deficit to get within four, but Redwood Empire took the opener by a score of 14-6.

The eventual runners-up led 10-0 after two innings, but Corning reliever Sophia Oliverez entered the game and shut down Redwood Empire for the next two innings to enable her team’s comeback.

Daisy Brose went 2-for-3 with a run scored and Kate Picha, Maddy Caputo, Avree Mulliner, Bailey Fryar and Oliverez all singled and scored runs for Corning.

The score was cut to 10-6, but Redwood Empire extended its lead in the bottom of the fifth and Corning didn’t score again. Kaitlin Cox finished the game on the hill, collaborating with Oliverez, Bethany Bott and starter Cheyenne Boles.

Corning 13

El Rancho (Chico) 0

Fryar hurled a complete game on the mound in Corning’s 13-0 rout of Chico’s El Rancho squad.

Fryar walked one batter and struck out four in the victory, helping her cause offensively by going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and a pair of RBI singles.

Brose scored three times, slugging a RBI double, and Kimmie White also hit a run-scoring double while crossing the plate twice.

Oliverez tripled, knocked in two runs and scored twice while Bott drove in a run with a sacrifice.

Tristan Loghry smacked a two-run single, Shawnee Winterson bunted for a hit, Cox was 2-for-3 and teammates Whitney Armstrong and Mulliner added runs to the win.

Corning 6

Intermountain 5

Boles pitched six solid innings and Oliverez shut down Intermountain in the bottom of the seventh to help Corning win, 6-5.

Boles struck out eight batters and walked four, leaving in a tie game at the end of regulation.

Fryar singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and finished 1-for-2 with two RBI and a sacrifice.

Brose, Cox and Oliverez also scored twice for Corning.

Intermountain rallied back from a 5-1 deficit, scoring three runs in the fifth and the tying run in the sixth to force extra innings.

North Yuba 1

Corning 0

Corning fell to North Yuba, 1-0, in the semifinals of the losers’ bracket, suffering a no-hit defeat.

There wasn’t much offense in the pitchers’ duel between North Yuba’s ace Taylor Pack and Fryar of Corning.

Fryar struck out three batters and walked six in a complete-game effort. Corning also had six baserunners, with five walks and a catcher’s interference.

North Yuba scored its run in the first inning, and Corning nearly tied it twice.

In the bottom of the first, Brose was caught stealing home on a passed ball. Cox walked, stole second and took third on a passed ball in the sixth as well, but was stranded when the final out was made.

Corning’s defense also came up with huge plays to keep North Yuba from scoring after the first, ending two innings on plays at the plate.

White threw out a runner at home in the sixth on a slow roller and Oliverez helped Fryar escape a bases-loaded jam with a third-to-home double play in the third.

Corning finished with an overall record of 5-2, earning the bronze title at Sections and the District 1 championship banner.