Gilroy
– Caitlyn Pierotti said there was no way Gilroy was going to
take Alisal lightly. All too often when a team is facing an
opponent with just two wins at this juncture of the season, that is
merely lip service.
Gilroy – Caitlyn Pierotti said there was no way Gilroy was going to take Alisal lightly.
All too often when a team is facing an opponent with just two wins at this juncture of the season, that is merely lip service. This time, however, the junior catcher and her teammates were serious.
They were so serious that they scored in every inning and played errorless ball to back the one-hit pitching of Melinda Ortiz in a 10-0 win over the Trojans in a Tri-County Athletic League win halted after five innings because of the mercy rule.
“We did a good job of not taking them for granted,” said Pierotti, who drove in three runs. “This was probably one of our better games. We scored in the first inning and kept on scoring. We didn’t chase bad pitches and went for base hits rather than home runs.”
After Amanda Tellez knocked in the first run with a base hit, Pierotti capped the first inning uprising with a two-run single.
Ashley Serrano, who didn’t have an official at-bat all game and yet scored three runs, got her first run when she walked, moved to third on the lone error in the game and scored on a wild pitch.
Jasmine Perez got her second base hit of the game in the third and scored on an opposite-field single by Alicia Reese, the Mustangs’ batting average leader.
Gilroy (18-7 overall, 3-3 TCAL) scored three runs in the fourth with Pierotti’s RBI double the only hit.
Serrano and Lauryn Chris drew walks and moved around on four wild pitches and a passed ball. The Mustangs closed it out in the fifth on Kylie Herrada’s two-run double.
Meanwhile, Ortiz was in control with seven strikeouts and two walks. The only Alisal (2-13, 1-5) hit was an infield single by Stormie Sevillo in the second, a soft pop up that the wind blew in front of second baseman Chris.
“The team’s bats came around and that helped me a lot,” Ortiz said. “When we get hitting, everything else seems to come around. We got big hits and the defense came with it.”
Tellez, Chris and Perez each scored two runs for the Mustangs, who were recipients of seven walks and five wild pitches.
“We did the job that needed to be done,” GHS coach Catherine Hallada said. “We didn’t slow down because of who we were playing. We stayed at our own pace. It was a good game all the way around.”
The Mustangs begin the second half of their TCAL slate at 4:30pm Thursday when they visit Alvarez.
Alisal 000 00 – 0 1 1
Gilroy 3 1 1 32 – 10 8 0
Gutierrez, Flores (5) and Sevillo; Ortiz and Pierotti. L-Gutierrez. 2B-GIL, Pierotti, Herrada.
