LOWER LAKE — One ferocious swing of the bat made sure the Lower Lake Trojans wouldn”t lose a third straight game in the seventh inning.
Adrina Miller”s scorching line drive to deep center field in the bottom of the fourth inning cleared the bases, the three-run home run propelling the Trojans to an 8-5 victory over the Pierce Bears in a non-league softball game on Thursday at Lower Lake.
The Trojans (3-2) opened the season with back-to-back wins before losing leads in the bottom of the seventh inning in consecutive losses to Upper Lake and Healdsburg.
“We finally got some timely hitting,” Lower Lake coach Chris Emberson said.
Miller”s three-run bomb gave the Trojans a 7-2 lead. They picked up another run in the fifth and the score remained at 8-2 until Pierce (1-2) rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh – not good enough to beat the Lower Lake this time around.
“It would have gone out of any field I”ve ever seen,” Emberson said of Miller”s blast, which came on a 3-2 count with two outs in the fourth. “She smashed it.”
Miller (1-for-3) also walked with the bases loaded to drive in another run during the Trojans” three-run rally in the third inning, which snapped a 1-1 tie.
Winning pitcher Amanda Graf struck out five and walked eight. She allowed only three earned runs, the result of six Lower Lake errors.
“We booted the ball around and I”m not happy with that,” Emberson said. “I expect better play from our defense and it”s something we need to work on. We”re capable of playing much better than that.”
Savannah Koch went 2-for-3 with two RBI for Lower Lake and Nicole Spooner went 2-for-3 and scored twice.
Both teams had seven hits.
Lower Lake returns to action Tuesday at home against Potter Valley at 4 p.m.
