The Lady Roadrunners split their two games played last week suffering a tough 17-16 road loss at Chinle on Wednesday, then bouncing back with a 15-5 win at Joseph City on Saturday.
The game at Chinle was a scoring fest with both teams combing to split 36 hits with 18 on each side. Playing on their home field, the Wildcats started quickly scoring 12 runs in the first two frames. Holbrook stayed within touch with six runs through the first three innings.
In the top of the fifth, Holbrook found their stride and pushed across nine runs to take a 15-13 lead. Chinle fought back to retake the lead with three in the bottom of the sixth. That one run margin held up as each team scored once in the seventh inning. Holbrook tied the game at 16-16 in the top of the seventh, but the home team broke the tie in the bottom of the seventh to win the game.
“We told the girls all week exactly what to expect in this game. We knew they would come out hitting and that they would play well at home. Destany had a rough day in the circle without her best stuff but her teammates rallied around her and we worked our way back into the game. Carla came in to pitch and did a great job to keep their offense at bay for over four innings. We made a few mistakes defensively that really hurt us. Anytime we can hit three home runs and score 16 runs in a game we should come out on top. Luckily it’s a long season and how we bounce back means a lot more than this minor setback,” said Head Coach Scott Baker.
Carla Plumb and Makenzi Thompson each went 3 for 4. Kendra Monroe was 3 for 5. Kallee Reidhead went 2 for 4, Canela Queiruga was 2 for 4, Sydney Plumb went 2 for 5, Rayanna Yellowhair was 1 for 4, Destany Begay was 1 for 2, and Alexys Beltran went 1 for 3.
Carla Plumb, Thompson, and Sydney Plumb all had home runs. Yellowhair had a triple and Carla Plumb, Queiruga and Thompson each doubled in the loss.
Carla Plumb took the loss in the circle where she faced 24 batters in four and a third innings of work. She gave up five runs on four hits with six walks and had one strikeout. Destany Begay worked one and two-third innings giving up 12 runs on 11 hits with three walks.
Saturday’s game at Joseph City went much smoother despite another slow beginning. “We are starting to create a bad habit of getting off to a slow start, especially offensively. We seem to not be able to string hits together until the third inning. Today Rayanna came out strong in the circle. She kept the ball down in the strike zone and kept hitters off balance. Destany came on in the seventh and finished the game off for us by having a great bounce back performance. We had good production throughout the batting order. We definitely need to improve before we get into our region games and next weeks tournament will be a great opportunity to do that,” added Coach Baker.
Joseph City led 1-0 through the first two innings before Holbrook bats came to life in the third and fourth innings where they scored five runs in each taking command of the game. The Wildcats added one in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the seventh but it wasn’t near enough to overcome Holbrook’s big lead.
Yellowhair worked six innings in the circle giving up just four runs on 11 hits with six strikeouts and walked two.
At the plate Reidhead tripled and Queiruga, Madison Chappell, and Sydney Plumb each had doubles.
Holbrook heads to the Colorado River Invitational Tournament this weekend with a 5-3 overall record. They are slated to play Boulder City, Pahrump Valley and Chino Valley on Thursday. Friday’s first game will be against Palo Verde Valley. Other games on Friday and Saturday will depend on the outcome from the first two days. Following the tournament the team will return to regular season play on March 13 when they host Page in a double-header contest.
