SANTA ROSA — In a game that was decided in the first inning, the Middletown Mustangs fell 13-4 to the Maria Carrillo Pumas in non-league softball action Monday in Santa Rosa.
Middletown (3-5) had a 3-0 lead just six batters into the top of the first inning only to watch Maria Carrillo (4-3) turn around and score six times in the bottom half.
“We don”t have a dominating pitcher and we”re going to struggle at times,” Middletown coach Bob Cummesky said. “(Maria) Castaldo and (Kaitlyn) Swank are working hard to do their best, but they”ve both been pitching a little over a year.”
Castaldo drew the start against the Pumas and went the distance, allowing 12 hits and six earned runs. She also walked 10 and hit two, which combined with five Middletown errors gave Maria Carrillo plenty of baserunners.
The Pumas busted the game open with a four-run bottom of the fourth to go up 11-4.
Middletown built a 3-0 lead in the top of the first on the strength of a lead-off bunt single by Castaldo, Roshell Dunlap”s single and a walk to Madi Hicks to load the bases with no outs. Cheyanne Horvath doubled home Castaldo and Dunlap to make it 2-0 and Erika Kirby”s one-out single pushed the Mustangs” lead to 3-0.
Maria Carrillo surged ahead in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of three hits, three walks and two Middletown errors to go up 6-3. Both teams added a run in the second inning.
“Carrillo”s a very talented team with some solid ballplayers,” Cummesky said. “They have a lot of speed and we have trouble handling speed.”
With Middletown scheduled to open its league schedule today against Lower Lake, weather permitting, Cummesky said he feels good about what his team has accomplished to this point.
“Every team we”ve lost to has at least double or even triple our enrollment,” Cummesky said. “I purposely scheduled it that way. We”ve been competitive with the schools our size. We accomplished what we wanted to.”
Kirby went 3-for-3 for the Mustangs and Castaldo went 2-for-3.
