SANTA ROSA — It was the day of the underclassman starring Jillian Allen on Wednesday as the Kelseyville High School softball team beat up Rincon Valley Christian 10-5 in a non-league game in Santa Rosa.
Kelseyville coach Greg Giusti started all his young players, including sophomore pitcher Allen, who didn”t disappoint.
“She was very, very strong,” Giusti said.
Allen scattered five hits in going the distance for the Knights (9-8), who moved above .500 with the win. She struck out five and walked only one despite tweaking her ankle while running out a grounder during Kelseyville”s five-run top of the first.
The Knights didn”t score again until the fourth when they added four more runs against losing pitcher Amanda Wisdom to go up 9-0.
“She was throwing hard and really stopped us in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings,” Giusti said. “But we pounded her in the first and fourth.”
Kelseyville added a final run in the seventh.
Rincon Valley Christian, a 4-3 winner over Cloverdale earlier this season, broke up Allen”s shutout bid with a run in the fourth but didn”t score again until the seventh.
Amanda Mueller went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Megan Andre went 2-for-4 to lead Kelseyville at the plate.
“My underclassmen played essentially the whole game and they were really strong, really smart and really aggressive,” Giusti said.
Kelseyville resumes its NCL I North schedule on Friday in Middletown at 4 p.m. The winner moves into sole possession of second place behind leader Fort Bragg.
