Softball showdown goes to River Valley

After River Valley High suffered its first Tri-County Conference loss against Pioneer earlier this month, coach Andy Pearson gathered his team and noticed something had changed.

The Falcons were upset following that tough 2-0, 10-inning loss to the Patriots and were eager to get back out on the diamond and make the most out of their season.

A pair of wins soon followed and with them came some much-needed momentum heading into the second half of conference play.

"The loss really got to them and woke them up," Pearson said. "But the kids are stronger because of that — now they're focused and on a mission."

On Wednesday, the Falcons showed that new-found focus by pounding out nine hits and riding the right arm of senior ace Courtney Smith to pick up a 6-2 victory over cross-town rival Yuba City.

Both teams entered the game just one game back of Pioneer in the TCC standings and with the win the Falcons moved into sole possession of second place. The top three teams from the conference will receive postseason berths, but don't expect River Valley to look that far ahead just yet.

"I'm proud of the way the girls bounced back from the loss, but we've got to take it one game at a time and we can't look down the road," Pearson said. "Anything can happen and these girls realize that."

The Falcons (9-2-1, 4-1) scored an unearned run in the third inning to open the scoring and added three more in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. Nicole Robinson delivered the biggest blow by clubbing a two-run double and Kaitlin Carpenter added a sacrifice fly later in the fourth, giving Smith plenty of room to work with.

She retired the first 12 batters and was already staked to a four-run cushion before Yuba City had its first baserunner of the game.

Rachel Quinn ripped a triple and scored on a run-scoring single by Hailey Shelton in the fifth and Jackie Tanner added an RBI single in the sixth to put River Valley up 6-0 before the Honkers' offense finally got going.

Yuba City (12-4, 3-2) got to Smith in the bottom of the sixth when two walks and back-to-back singles by Maria LaBouyer and Anjelica Cisneros allowed the Honkers to scrape together a pair of runs.

But by that point it was too late as Smith struck out seven and limited the Honkers to four hits on the afternoon to up her mark to 8-2 on the season. The two runs allowed actually raised her ERA to a still—impressive 0.70.

Jordan Thompson also pitched well for Yuba City, however six walks, two errors and a hit batter came back to haunt the Honkers' junior hurler.

"Both pitchers did great, we just gave them some free ones and it ended up hurting us," Yuba City coach Chuck Robinson said. "They're a good team and when you give them extra outs, it's tough."

Tanner finished the day 2 for 3 with a triple and an RBI and Quinn was 2 for 4 with a triple and a run scored to lead the way for River Valley. Shelton also went 2 for 3 for the Falcons, who start the second half of league play Friday at Woodland.