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JV Softball Girls Roll To Pair Of Victories
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JV player Lexy Underwood, left, watches the play develop in front of her and gets ready to scamper back to second base during Thursday afternoon play against Downey. Marg Jackson/The Times

So far, they haven’t been challenged too much.

This week was more of the same, as the Escalon JV softball girls shut out Bret Harte by a 25-0 final and took a 13-2 win against Downey.

On Tuesday, the young Lady Cougars hosted Bret Harte, which was playing its first game of the season after suffering through several rainouts.

“It went well, we ended it at 25-0 in four innings and that has been the trend of the season so far,” explained head coach Malinda Walker, noting that the girls have taken most of their wins via run rule.

“Tuesday’s game had a lot of walks but we did score a couple runs in the first, Kylee DuBois tripled and Lexy Underwood singled her in,” Walker said.

Underwood later scored as well for the early 2-0 lead. Escalon added two more in the second inning and then opened up the floodgates against Bret Harte in the third.

“That seems to be when we get our rallies going,” Walker said. “We scored 17 runs in the third.”

While the Bret Harte team was down, they were not out, Walker said, as they were eager to stay on the diamond and get some work in.

“They wanted to keep playing, they wanted to get all their pitchers in,” explained Walker. “It was the first chance they had been able to play.”

Grace Fitzgerald added a double in the fourth for Escalon, while DuBois handled the pitching and allowed just one hit and struck out five in four innings.

Friday, the girls were at home again and this time faced Downey.

“It was a little more reasonable, they had good pitching and that was really the first time we have seen that,” Walker said. “That’s the day I learned my team can hit good pitching.”

The final was 13-2 in Escalon’s favor and they raised their record to a perfect 7-0 for the preseason campaign.

“We did get a run in the first, which is something we stress,” Walker said of jumping on top early.

Jessie Fernandez tripled and came in on a DuBois RBI single to get the JV girls on the board.

“Our goal is to score as early as possible,” added Walker. “Kylee DuBois started on the mound, Arabella Strach came in, they split the game.”

Again, the third inning was key for the JV squad, as they scored six runs and put a little distance between themselves and their opponent. DuBois had a single, Underwood bunted her over and reached on an error, Strach hit an RBI single, Madison Kimble had a two-RBI single.

“Downey brought in two runs, both on errors on our part,” Walker said.

And even though the JV girls have put together a string of wins, Walker noted that the league will be tougher, and they have plenty of work to do to prepare for some of the toughest Trans-Valley League teams.

“We need to keep working hard,” Walker said.

The girls were scheduled to play at Linden on Monday, after The Times went to press and will host Liberty Ranch at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 24.