Big games call for big time performances, and that’s exactly what the Lakewood Lancers got from starting pitcher and leadoff hitter Justine Avalos. The senior pitched a three-hit complete-game shutout, went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and scored the first run of the game to help lift the Lancers over the visiting Wilson Bruins, 3-0.
With the victory, Lakewood (7-0) remains undefeated in Moore League play and takes a strangle hold of the league crown. The loss drops the Bruins (5-2) into a tie for second.
Photo by Bob Sykes
In the circle, Avalos kept the Bruins off balance all day long and collected 11 ground ball outs. But full credit needs to go to the Lakewood coaching staff for having a game plan and calling the right pitches, catcher Sarah Carrasco for framing the pitches, and Avalos for executing those pitches.
In the first inning, the Lakewood battery pounded the strike zone on the inside half. The top of the Wilson lineup couldn’t get their hands far enough inside or go the other way, and the one, two and three hitters went a combined 1-for-9.
The bottom half of the first was like a completely different game. The home plate umpire had a very tight zone in the early going, and Avalos was able to find her spot on the inside, but Wilson starter Linzy Rother didn’t have as much success.
Rother struggled to spot her fastball on the outside half and fell behind in the count to all seven batters she faced in the first inning. Avalos started it off by poking a 2-1 fastball into the right-center field gap for a triple. Amanda Robinson followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Avalos. Then with two outs, Rother walked three straight batters (all on 3-2 counts) before getting a strike out to escape the bases loaded jam. It was the perfect mix of an umpire squeezing, a pitcher missing her release point by just a little bit, and a Lancer line up prepared to be patient and play small ball.
“Little ball, small ball, whatever you want to call it,” said Lakewood coach Andy Miramontes. “We needed to stay aggressive (like we have been lately) and put the ball in play and make them make the out. I mean, (Avalos) gets a triple in the first inning, and I have her bunting in the second. It all worked. We should have gotten more than just one in the first.”
The bunt Miramontes mentioned came in the bottom of the second. Devon Mercurio led off with a single and moved to second on a swinging bunt from Adriana Valdez. Mercurio moved to third after a wild pitch from Rother (her second of the game) and Wilson coach Tim Rother replaced her with freshman hurler Loren Stavrou. Avalos welcomed the young Stavrou to the game with a swinging bunt of her own that she legged out for the single. The play plated Mercurio to make it 2-0 Lakewood.
Stavrou worked her change up and rise ball very well, and after the Lancers manufactured one more run in the third with a bloop single, an infield single, and a fielders choice RBI, she held the best offense in the league to just two hits over two innings. She did get some help from the arm of catcher Lacey Rother, who ended both of Stavrou’s innings by throwing a runner out at second.
Those three runs were all Avalos needed, and as the game grew longer, the home plate umpires strike zone grew as well. The Lakewood battery took advantage, and just when the Bruins had adjusted to the inside heat, Avalos was painting the outside corner with her patented breaking ball that breaks away from right-handed hitters.
Wilson had a chance to score on a double by Justine Rentfrow in the fifth inning, but Kasie Cochrane was thrown out at home by center fielder Adriana Valdez.
“I just get up there and throw,” said Avalos, who is pitching after playing two years at second base. “I can’t get too excited or I get all jittery. I just have to stay calm and stay focused. Wilson is our rival, so I knew I had to go out there and do it… this win is huge for us.”
“Give credit to (Avalos) but I’ve seen us play so much better,” said coach Rother, who was ejected from the game in the sixth inning for arguing with the home plate umpire that Miramontes was arguing too much. “We’re very frustrated, and disappointed… We watched too many pitches and fell behind in the count, and you win high school softball by hitting… We have to work on staying more aggressive and adjusting and going the other way… I guess we just have to wait to see (Lakewood) in the playoffs.”
Photo by Bob Sykes
Photo by Bob Sykes