MIDDLETOWN >> Shelby Sapeta took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and faced just two batters over the minimum on Thursday as the Lower Lake Trojans shut out the injury-racked Middletown Mustangs 11-0 in a six-inning North Central League I softball game at Middletown.
Lower Lake (5-2 league, 11-5 overall) took a 3-0 lead into the top of the sixth and broke the game open with an eight-run uprising. Eight of the Trojans’ nine starters scored runs in the inning and three of them — Lily Griffin (2-for-4), Kayla Sanderson (2-for-4) and Adrianna Illia (2-for-4) — smacked two-run singles as Lower Lake paraded 12 batters to the plate, the first nine of which reached base safely.
“We were a little sluggish on offense until then,” Lower Lake coach Chris Emberson said. “We finally got our bats going.”
Not that Sapeta, a freshman, needed additional run support on this day. She lost her no-hitter after 4 1/3 innings when Sydney Frank legged out an infield single to deep shortstop, barely beating the throw to first base by Jolean Scarborough.
Middletown (1-6, 3-11), which has only three of its original nine starters remaining from the beginning of the season, didn’t get its first baserunner until the bottom of the fourth when Lower Lake committed its only error of the game. That runner was quickly erased on an around-the-horn double play. Rose Duncan also reached on a leadoff walk in the sixth, the lone walk issued by Sapeta, who also struck out seven.
“She had great command from the start,” Emberson said.
Losing pitcher Olivia Glosser kept Middletown in the game for five innings. She struck out five and walked two.
“Olivia did a good job, but in the sixth inning things just fell apart,” Middletown coach Barry Glosser said. “She got a little bit tired and her shoulder started to get sore.”
Middletown’s defense didn’t give its pitcher much support but Glosser said his team is doing its best given the circumstances.
Injuries have taken a huge toll on the Mustangs this season. On Thursday, six of Middletown’s starters were either reserves or junior varsity call-ups.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Glosser said. “We’re just trying to patch it together and make a decent effort against these other teams. For us to play as well as we did those first five innings was pretty impressive.”
Mikelynn Rowe and Marnae Johnson joined teammates Griffin, Sanderson and Illia with two hits and two RBIs apiece. Patti McCleery’s triple, one of two Lower Lake extra-base hits, led off the eight-run sixth inning. Illia also had a double.
The win leaves Lower Lake two games behind league leader Kelseyville (7-0) and one behind Cloverdale (6-1), a team the Trojans have yet to face (they host the Eagles on Tuesday).
“We just need to keep winning and hope someone can knock off Kelseyville,” Emberson said of the three-team league race.
Kelseyville already owns two league wins over Lower Lake and one against Cloverdale.
The Trojans host Middletown on Saturday at 11 a.m., the makeup of a game rained out earlier this season.
