LOWER LAKE >> In a starting lineup dominated by juniors and seniors, freshman Lily Griffin is starting to draw some attention to herself, and it’s all of the positive variety.
“It was her first start of the season and she hit the ball under pressure,” Lower Lake High School softball head coach Chris Emberson said of the No. 9 hitter in his lineup Tuesday as the Trojans beat the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 8-4 in North Central League I action at Lower Lake.
Griffin went 2-for-3 with a RBI, both hits contributing to three-run innings by the Trojans (7-2 league, 14-5 overall) in the fourth and sixth. “That’s great confidence for her,” Emberson said. “She’s gonna start the next game.”
Griffin’s first hit was a solid two-out RBI single to right-center field that capped a three-run fourth as the Trojans moved ahead 5-2. Her other hit was no less important as it loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth with Lower Lake holding a 5-3 lead. A wild pitch plated the first run of the inning and Jolean Scarborough bounced into a forced play to knock in another and make it 7-3. Fort Bragg’s sixth and final error of the day accounted for Lower Lake’s final run of the game.
Fort Bragg (2-5) picked up an unearned run in the top of the seventh to close the gap to 8-4. The Timberwolves were one baserunner shy of bringing the potential tying run to the plate when winning pitcher Ashlynn Mock retired her Fort Bragg counterpart, Felicia Sanchez, on a grounder to second base to end the game.
Each of Lower Lake’s last two home league games weren’t decided until the bottom of the seventh, so Emberson was pleased to be spared that extra bit of agony this time around.
“I’ll take it,” he said.
Coming off a 5-1 loss on Tuesday at Cloverdale (8-1), a game in which the Trojans struck out 14 times, Emberson said his offense, which scratched out only five hits against Fort Bragg, is still not where he wants it to be.
“We’re not making adjustments at the plate the second or third time up,” he said. “We got under the ball too many times and hit popups when we should have been concentrating on staying on top of the ball.”
Fort Bragg actually doubled up Lower Lake on hits, 10-5, but Mock and the Trojans were able to work out of jams in the fifth and sixth innings. The Trojans made up for their lack of hits by simply putting the ball into play, something they didn’t do against Cloverdale, and exploiting the Timberwolf defense time and time again.
“We put pressure on them and they made a lot of mistakes,” Emberson said.
Mock struck out three and walked none while Sanchez, who allowed only two earned runs, struck out three and walked three.
“Mock threw strikes, she did her job,” Emberson said. “She missed with her location a few times and they took advantage.”
Lower Lake scored two unearned runs on a throwing error by the Fort Bragg catcher in the bottom of the second to go up 2-0. Fort Bragg immediately answered with two runs in the top of the third. Three of the first four Timberwolves to bat in the inning collected hits, including a two-run double by Ashlynn Villapando to deep left field.
Besides Griffin, Scarborough, Kristen Celli and Alex DeGraw had hits for Lower Lake. DeGraw’s single drove in a run in the fourth.
