By Gerardo Bolong
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It was a matter of hitting hard early for the Ballard Beavers.
3A Metro-Mountain Ballard struck strongly for early runs in a five-inning 22-3 fastpitch softball victory against 3A Metro-Valley Chief Sealth International High School at the Lower SWAC softball field on Wed., March 21.
Ballard earned its first win of the young season and now stands at 1-2 overall and 1-0 in division while the Seahawks dropped to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in divison.
Besides softball fundamentals, the Ballard Beavers are striving to stay uplifted.
"Today, we attempted the designated player-flex combination with 10 players," said Beaver head coach Dale Griffith. "The team is very young with freshmen and sophomores. We aim to build confidence and academics. They're a ready to go potential. From top to bottom, they've bought in."
Capitalizing on an infield throwing error following a Lily Mullins lead off single to score one run, Ballard completed a first inning three-spot on a Sarah Tripp two-run, inside the park home run.
In the second inning, Veronica Onyon flew a grand slam, inside the park home run to deep centerfield as part of a seven-run Beaver surge.
With two outs in the bottom of the frame, Chief Sealth staged its own offensive uprising.
Taylor McPhee and Anna McCaffery drew consecutive walks and later moved up a base each on a double steal. Up stepped Sabrina Burgess to single sharply off the pitchers' mitt into right field for two runs to make the score 10-2.
The busy Beavers continued to build runs in the third inning. Back- to-back doubles by Lucy Pearson and Tripp led to Onyon's two RBI double. Rachel Givens hammered home another run as Ballard posted another seven runs to extend the lead to 17-2.
After singling earlier in the fourth inning, Dianne Córdoba reached home on a wild pitch for the final CS run.
Ballard fired home five runs in the fifth to close out the scoring.
Onyon had a huge day at the plate for the Beavers with three hits in five at bats including a home run, double and eight RBI.
"I'm pretty happy," she said. "I just timed the pitches."
Tripp finished at 3-of-3 with a homer, double and four RBI.
Despite the loss the Chief Sealth girls are strongly motivated to keep working hard.
"The ladies are smart and motivated," Seahawk head coach Mike Depew said. "They're young and have spirit. We have a lot of work to do."
