MIDDLETOWN — The Mustangs hit the ball up and down their lineup, pitcher Shaylyn Sims was a strike-throwing machine, and the Middletown defense made plays when they were most needed Wednesday afternoon, a winning formula in a 8-6 North Central League I softball victory over the Clear Lake Cardinals on a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Middletown.
Middletown (1-3 league, 2-3 overall) won its first game in more than a month and also collected its first league victory after an 0-3 start.
“We needed a spark,” Middletown head coach Bob Gunion said. “Things just weren’t working the last couple of games so I changed the lineup.”
The Mustangs responded by pounding out 13 hits, four of them for extra bases including a two-run triple by Cadence Henry (2-for-4), who drove in four runs on the day, and a solo home run by Pailey Shook, who cleared the right-center field fence to cap Middletown’s four-run bottom of the third inning, one that Henry ignited with her standup triple to right field.
Eight of Middletown’s nine starters had at least one hit and five of them finished the game with two hits — Henry, Cora Holley (2-for-3), Jaylee Doris (2-for-3), Melanie Gerst (2-for-4) and Jadyn Brown (2-for-3).
“They did really well, you have to give it up to them,” Clear Lake head coach Scott Schaefers said of the Mustangs’ big game at the plate.
Middletown earned everything it got because Clear Lake (3-2, 6-4) committed only one error and pitcher Atiana Patino walked only two Mustangs.
“It’s good for the kids … this was a team win,” Gunion said.
Sims was able to overcame six errors by her teammates, most of them occurring early in the game, by walking only one and scattering seven hits. That was the biggest difference between her and Patino, because while the Clear Lake freshman gave up hits in bunches to the Mustangs, Sims never gave up more than two in the same inning.
Middletown nearly hit for the cycle during its four-run third inning that put the Mustangs ahead to stay at 7-4. After Holley reached on an infield single to open the inning, Doris singled her over to second base. Henry followed with her shot down the right-field line that brought home both of her teammates for a 5-4 Middletown lead. Gerst’s RBI groundout to shortstop made it 6-4 and Shook’s blast to right-center upped the lead to 7-4. Singles by Brown and Breanna Pyzer had the Mustangs looking for more but Brown was cut down trying to steal third base for the third out.
Both teams lost a handful of runners on questionable baserunning decisions, something that wasn’t lost on Schaefers.
“I think we ran ourselves out of the game,” Schaefers said of Clear Lake baserunning blunders in the fifth and sixth innings when Cardinals runners were cut down at third base.
Clear Lake scored single runs in the fourth — on a Patino RBI single — and in the fifth — when Grace Gomez reached safely after her grounder to shortstop was booted for an error — to close to 7-6.
Middletown picked up an insurance run in the sixth on Henry’s RBI single.
Clear Lake looked like it might make some noise in the top of the seventh when Amber Smart led off with a sharp double down the line in left field, but Sims got a first-pitch-swinging Sierra Bruch to foul out to first base before striking out Montana Wells — her second and final strikeout of the game. Gomez walked to put the potential tying run on base — Sims’ only walk of the game — before Camrin Pivniska, also first-pitch swinging, popped out to second baseman Holley to end the game.
“We weren’t patient,” Clear Lake assistant coach Phil Psalmonds said a handful of key at-bats where the Cardinals made outs swinging at the first pitch or popped up balls that were out of the strike zone.
Sims was remarkably efficient as her complete game required only 81 pitches. She didn’t work deep into many counts. Patino did work deep into counts and ended up throwing 118 pitches in her six innings, which included five strikeouts. While she did lead Clear Lake with her three hits and two doubles, Patino didn’t receive much support from her teammates. Smart, Pivniska, Bruch and Stella Hill had the only other Cardinals hits.
The early innings were packed with plenty of excitement. Middletown went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first on Henry’s RBI groundout. Clear Lake grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the second, making the most of two straight Middletown throwing errors to open the inning, which produced the Cardinals’ first run. Gomez’s RBI groundout knocked in the second run.
Middletown came right back with two runs in the bottom half to go up 3-2. Pyzer’s RBI groundout knotted the score and Fleenor’s RBI double down the right-field line put the Mustangs back in front, though she got hung up between second and third and was tagged out to end the inning.
Back came the Cardinals to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the third. Smart’s grounder to shortstop was mishandled for an error as Patino, who had earlier doubled, came home to score. Wells’ sacrifice fly later in the inning snapped a 3-3 tie.
The game was originally scheduled to take place Friday in Lakeport but was moved to Wednesday in Middletown. The Mustangs come right back Thursday to host Lower Lake (1-2, 2-2) in a league game.
“This team needed to have a positive experience with winning,” Gunion said. “Now maybe we can build on that and get a winning streak going.”
Clear Lake is off until Tuesday when it travels to Fort Bragg to take on the Timberwolves, defending league champions, at 4 p.m.
Game notes: Shook wears No. 99 for the Mustangs, a number you won’t see often on a softball jersey … Middletown turned a 6-4-3 double play to limit the damage to just one run for the Cardinals in the top of the fifth … Patino didn’t have her best day pitching the ball but she did work out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fourth by striking out Shook, who had homered in her previous at-bat, to end the inning … Middletown’s Ann Brown, who keeps the scorebook for the Mustangs at all of their games, can certainly multi-task. While keeping the book at Wednesday’s game she also was doing the live game feed on Max Preps and running the scoreboard at the field. As an added treat, she got to see daughter Jaidyn Brown get two hits and score once for the Mustangs … Though she gave up six runs to Clear Lake, Sims wasn’t charged with an earned run … The Mustangs beat Piner 38-0 in their season opener way back on March 2, their only win until Wednesday. The rest of their non-league schedule was rained out … The only 1-2-3 inning Wednesday was in the bottom of the fifth when Patino retired the Mustangs in order with two groundouts and a strikeout.
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