Hitting on all cylinders, the Escalon JV Lady Cougars ran Ripon out of town on Wednesday, dispatching the Indians in a 14-4 contest on the softball diamond.
Escalon scored three in the first, one in the second, two in the third and then put the game away with an 8-run fourth inning.
Ripon got one run in the second and three in the third, battling back to tie the game at 4-4 briefly, until the host Escalon team regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the third.
“We saw the pitcher enough,” head coach Malinda Walker said of her players teeing off on the young hurler. “The girls were hitting really, really well.”
Part of the team’s focus lately, Walker added, has been working on staying in the game mentally the entire time, never letting down, even if it is a game that is out of hand one way or the other.
This time, she said, they kept hitting and building on the lead, finally stretching it out to win by the 10-run rule.
“Morgan Reider was our leadoff hitter, she had leadoff doubles in the first and fourth innings and scored two times,” said Walker. “Ashley Duval had three triples and four runs batted in.”
Angelica Coreno knocked in the first two runs of the game to get the young Lady Cougars started and Kylee DuBois pitched a complete game.
“We’ve been wanting to beat Ripon for a long time,” Walker admitted of having lost in the first round of the TVL schedule to the Indians. “It was beautiful.”
Escalon improved to 4-3 in league play with the win and are now 9-4 overall.
