Vale hurlers win opener
by Matthew Neal
Argus Observer
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:42 AM PDT
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| Matthew Neal | Argus Observer
Vale’s Laken Perry winds up for the pitch during the Viking’s 6-2 win over Weiser Tuesday. Perry came away with nine strikeouts, six walks and one hit for the win. |
VALE — The Vale softball team won 6-2 over Weiser Tuesday afternoon in Vale during its season opener. Vale pitcher Laken Perry pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts, six walks and one hit for the win.
Perry struck out three in the top of the first. Weiser’s Nicole Edwards took to the mound for the Wolverines, pitching a three-hitter with five strikeouts, four walks and six runs.
Vale’s lead-off hitter Sam Kamo hit a ground out to short followed by a double by Amanda Shlupe to get Vale on base. Edwards then walked Ashley Morcom. With runners on first and second, Jill Howe stepped to the plate and hit the first pitch she saw to score Shlupe to give Vale the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
After a scoreless second, Weiser took to the bats at the top of the third and had Tiffany Nelson score Sam Larsen on a base hit for Weiser’s first offensive effort to tie the game at one.
Vale answered the run when Morcom scored on a base hit by Lindsey Sharp to give Vale the go ahead run. They led 2-1.
In the fourth inning Vale’s Janessa Cooper stole home on a wild pitch to put Vale ahead by three, and after another three runs in the fifth and sixth innings, Vale took the game 6-2.
“This is our first game and you can’t be disappointed with a 6-2 win. The girls have been working hard the last two weeks, and defensively they did phenomenal today,” Vale’s head softball coach Sam Crockett said.
“We had no errors on the field and that’s important, to have errorless games, but we do need to work on our bats a little more, but we did get things going.”
Weiser fared well against Nampa Christian last Saturday during its double-header opener.
“We played a much better team today than we did Saturday,” Weiser’s head softball coach Dale Emery said. “Our defense let us down a little bit today. Their pitching was strong, we didn’t hit like we would have liked to and we did not play defensively like we can.”
Weiser plays Ontario at home Thursday at 5 p.m. while Vale will travel to Homedale for a 5 p.m. game.
