There were a few surprises at Ironwood Ridge as Salpointe won a hitting match 12-8 Thursday night:

The weather. 50 degrees is not what one expects at the end of April – not in Tucson. The only thing that saved the game was the lack of rain that fell on the rest of the valley.

The coaching. Rockie Guevara has been elevated to interim head coach of Salpointe due to the absence of Ted Farhat. Guevara once served as interim head coach at Desert View under Bert Otero and is more than ready to take the lead role if called upon.

The pitching. Ridge pitcher Makayla McAdams went seven innings and threw 159 pitches. Salpointe split their duties between Kayla Laguna (94 pitches) and Paige Peterson (53).

The homeruns. Kat Banks hit one for The Ridge and Salpointe produced two of them behind the bats of Erica Sanchez and Peterson.

The illegal pitches. Peterson was called for 5 illegal pitches – the equivalent of a balk in baseball. The calls resulted in an earned run for The Ridge in the 5th inning.

Nicole Rascon went 4-4 with a walk for Salpointe and was unstoppable until Ridge catcher Robin Landrith threw her out on an attempted steal in the 7th inning. Rascon had a steal in the 1st inning.

“The ground was really hard,” explained Rascon. “I was able to put the ball down and get on.”

The speedy slapper is on her way to Yavapai and is one of the premier leadoff batters in Arizona.

Rascon reached in the 1st inning off of McAdams. McAdams induced a groundout and then walked catcher Melissa Mares. McAdams struck out the next batter but Rascon and courtesy runner Gemma Contreras took off and stole third and second on the play.

Peterson hit a two-out single to bring in Rascon and Contreras.

The Ridge would answer in the bottom of the first as Erin Satterfield lead off with a single and moved to second on a groundout. Landrith followed with an RBI single and then Sara Rodriguez walked.

Banks hit a line drive off of Laguna’s leg for an infield hit. Laguna was struggling and walked Lauren

Robinson with the bases loaded to tie the game at 2-2.

Rachel Low reached on an error that scored Landrith to put The Ridge up 3-0 with the bases still loaded.

Laguna struck out the next two batters to minimize the damage.

The Nighthawks would not score again until the 4th inning where they scored four runs. Satterfield was issued a one-out walk by Laguna and then gave up a double to Dani Colwill that brought in Satterfield.

Landrith followed with an RBI single on her first pitch. Laguna got a fly to right field for the second out but then Banks hit a towering homerun over the left field fence on her second pitch. Laguna walked Robinson and was pulled in favor of Peterson.

Peterson gave up a short single to Low but then struck out the next batter to end the inning. Salpointe was still leading 9-7 but the four runs scored by the Nighthawks showed that they weren’t about to give up.

Salpointe added two runs in the third inning after Mares lead off with a walk and Sanchez followed with a homerun over the left field fence.

The Lancers put up 5 runs in the 4th inning to go up 9-3. Anyssa Soto reached on an infield hit and then Alyssa Gutierrez got on for Salpointe.

Rascon followed with another slap to third but the attempt to get her out at first was too late and wound up past first base to score Soto. Kristi Gragg put down a squeeze bunt to score Gutierrez and then McAdams forced a pop up and a line-out before giving up a three-run homerun to Peterson.

The Ridge cut the lead to 9-8 after the 5th as Satterfield walked on four pitches, including two illegal pitches, and moved to second base on a groundout. Satterfield moved to third base on an illegal pitch and then scored on an illegal pitch.

Warnings were then issued to the fans who did not agree with the calls so late in the game.

McAdams had thrown 107 pitches after 5 innings but was able to strike out the first two batters in the 6th inning. She then gave up a single to Peterson and then walked Miraya Montiel. Dana Hughes came in to hit for Laguna and hit a fly to center field that was dropped on a difficult attempt to score both Peterson and Montiel for two unearned runs.

Salpointe scored another run in the 7th as Blakeney Sitton brought in Contreras on an RBI single.

Peterson issued a one-out walk to McAdams in the bottom of the 7th and Taylor Bradley came in to run for her. Montiel record a 6U-6-3 double play to end the game. 12-8 Salpointe.

“We had a big loss to Sunnyside (April 20, 2-1, 10 innings) and we did a good job of bouncing back,” said Guevara. “They stayed in the game and everyone from the bench to the starting lineup did their job.”

Peterson agreed. “I was just doing my job. I guess I’m good with pressure.”

Salpointe is currently sitting with a 7 ranking in power points (5A-I) but should move up after the victory. Ironwood Ridge is hanging on with a 15 ranking in 5A-II.

Buena (17) plays Salpointe tomorrow and Sunnyside on Saturday. Tucson (26) is out of the 5A-I playoff picture.

Sunnyside is ranked 4th in 5A-II. Mountain View (21) and Rincon (28) are out.

The state playoffs for 5A begin on May 1st and conclude on May 14th. According to the AIA, if two

Tucson teams play each other, then the game will be played in Tucson, including the championship that is scheduled for Rose Mofford near I-17 and Dunlap in Phoenix.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 9:46 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.