FORTUNA — The Middletown Mustangs ran into trouble early and couldn”t recover, falling 12-2 in five innings to the Fortuna Huskies on Wednesday afternoon in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV softball playoffs at Fortuna.
The Huskies (18-7), the No. 4 seed in the Division IV tournament, advance to the quarterfinals and will host No. 12 San Rafael on Friday. San Rafael upset No. 5 Clear Lake 7-4 in another first-round game on Wednesday.
“We got up there and started really slow,” Middletown coach Barry Glosser said of the three runs — all unearned — scored by the Huskies in the bottom of the first when a pair of two-out errors opened the floodgates. “We made a lot of mistakes today.”
Middletown (10-12) fought back with a run in the top of the second on Maddie Hicks” RBI single, but Fortuna added three more runs in the third for a 6-1 lead. After both teams added a run in the fourth — Middletown”s scoring on Hicks” groundout — the Huskies put the game away with a five-run fifth.
Losing pitcher Renee Edwards worked 4 1/3 innings before Allegra Macedo relieved her in the fifth. Edwards struck out three and walked five.
Completing his first season as Middletown”s head coach, Glosser said the Mustangs, who finish 10-12 overall, have plenty to look forward to in the coming years.
“I”m real pleased with what the girls accomplished this year and I think next year is just going to build off of that,” Glosser said.
