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Lady Cougars Take Two Out Of Three
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Taking two out of three games this week, the two wins were solid ones but the loss was ugly.

Escalon's varsity softball girls topped Linden in non-league play on March 26 in a make-up game of a previously rained out contest. Then they took down Trans-Valley League opponent Orestimba on the road Wednesday. But a visit from Hughson on Friday turned in to a loss where virtually nothing went right for the squad.

"We won 4-2 at Linden and it was our first errorless game," said coach Dianne Teixeira. "We scored one in the third and three in the seventh."

The rally in their final at bat was started by Kristin Beckman with a single, followed by an Anastasia Rodriguez double, then an RBI single from Adalia Cajias. Illiana Cajias followed with an RBI single, as did Marissa Dominguez to close out the scoring.

Escalon had four runs on eight hits with no errors. Linden had two runs and two hits with no errors. Dominguez got the win, striking out five and walking four.

At Orestimba for league play, it was a 9-2 Lady Cougar victory on March 28. Ashley Schuurman got the start on the mound and the lefty struck out eight and walked three, scattering six hits in the win.

"We scored two in the first, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and two in the seventh," said Teixeira. "The big story was we had three homers over the fence, Anastasia Rodriguez with one that drove in three, Lexis Prim had a solo shot and Ashley Schuurman had one with two RBIs."

Defensively, the team played well again, committing just one error on the day and making Orestimba fight for the runs they did get. Escalon had 12 hits to go along with their nine runs.

"Once again, they played well and we hit the ball hard," said Teixeira.

Friday, with Hughson in town, it seemed like every ball the Lady Cougars touched went the wrong way.

"Just counting it up, we had 11 errors," Teixeira said. "Only half of their runs were earned and we gave up eight runs in one inning. We switched out pitchers in the middle of it, it was just a mess."

Everyone had a tough day, from passed balls to missed signs on the base paths. A couple of bright spots were Adalia Cajias cutting down a runner at the plate from left field and she also ripped a two-run double.

"We hit it hard and they bobbled some, but we just couldn't recover," said Teixeira.

Escalon had four runs, three hits and 11 errors while Hughson had 16 runs on nine hits with four errors.

"We just have to learn from this," said the coach.

The Lady Cougars are back at it this week, with Modesto Christian coming in on Thursday, April 5. The girls were scheduled to play at Hilmar on Tuesday, April 3, past press time for The Times.

Escalon's JV team, meanwhile, was involved in a battle in each of their three contests but all three went down in the loss column, with close games against Linden, Orestimba and Hughson.

They only had one game this week, with Hilmar on Tuesday, as MC doesn't field a JV softball squad.