Spartans win on walk-off hit

Four-year catcher Heidi Goss appropriately drilled a game-winning double on Senior Appreciation Day.

Goss hit a walk-off, two-RBI double to lead No. 1 East Nicolaus to a 7-6 come-from-behind win over a stingy No. 9 Burney team in a Division V Northern Section softball opener at home on Tuesday.

Burney, of the Shasta Cascade League, led nearly the entire way, but the Spartans (25-3), a team loaded with nine seniors, got a game-changing hit from a promising youngster.

Trailing 6-2 with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, East Nicolaus freshman Sierra Lehman belted a triple deep into left-center field to clear the bases and cut the lead to 6-5.

"I knew I had to come through. It was just a matter of time that one of us stepped up," Lehman said of her Sacramento Valley League South champion Spartans, who had mustered up just seven hits off of Burney's Maryah Snow.

After holding off Burney down the stretch, East Nicolaus led off the bottom of the seventh with consecutive batters reaching base. Holli Bingaman was hit by a pitch and Lydia White hit a single, before Goss hit the double to win the game.

Snow forced East Nicolaus to pop up 12 times in the game, and had led the Raiders to a 7-4 victory over Modoc in the previous contest, pitching a combined 14 innings on the day.

"We were just way out in front of a pitcher who doesn't throw very hard," said East Nicolaus coach Richard Quick.

"But I had no idea that was going to happen," Quick said, still in disbelief of the comeback.

"We made more mistakes in that game than we have all season," Quick said. "I just hope they got them out of their system. We can't play like that on Thursday and expect to get a win."

With the win, East Nicolaus will play host to the winner of No. 4 Etna-No. 5 Liberty at 4 p.m. Thursday

While the Spartans came out flat and may have committed five errors, they also had timely hitting all game.

After going down in order in the first inning, East Nicolaus' White knocked in Bingaman on a double to right field in the second. Goss gave the Spartans a brief 2-1 lead after scoring on a passed ball.

But Burney would do most of its damage in the third, where its scored four runs on five hits, including a two-RBI triple by Kayla Ross.

Kayla Jones drilled an RBI double to put up Burney's final score in the fifth, but for the most part, the Raiders struggled against Bingaman.

Bingaman, who relieved White in the fourth, struck out the side in her first inning from the circle, and allowed just two hits through four innings.

Lehman led the Spartans at the plate, going 3-for-3 with three RBIs, while White went 2-for-4 with an RBI.