Martinez Tribune
Thursday’s opening game of the Livermore Stampede showed two different ways teams can win a ball game. Neither way is “right or wrong.”
That is of course unless you win, then it is always the right way.
Alhambra relied on the long ball while their opponents, the 97th best team in the nation according to MaxPreps, Foothill-Pleasanton took a more methodical approach to their game plan. Long ball won, and so did Alhambra by a score of 3-2.
Foothill did what teams with speedy lead off hitters with scrappy at bats do. UCLA-bound Senior Jenna Crawford singled on the first pitch she say from senior Sam Whitworth, was moved over by a ground ball, and scored on a single by clean up hitter Maddie Warren.
Whitworth still got out of the inning only throwing nine pitches but the initial damage was done.
Alhambra had a different idea of what they were going to do. After getting into a 3-1 count, Cara DiMercurio sat dead red on a challenge fast ball and launched a 26-foot bomb over the left field fence off of Chapman University-bound Nalani Scates.
But although runs came early, they wouldn’t come easy for either team, as the two pitchers settled down and went into an all out duel.
Whitworth didn’t allow a hit over the next three innings, but neither did Scates.
The Alhambra senior did run into a sticky situation from a pair of singles from Regan Lacy and Mary Rockwood. But Withworth bore down and got a fly out and was bailed out by junior Bri Perez, who flashed the leather on a diving grab on a line drive off the bat of the pitcher Scates.
Whitworth was unable to get out of trouble again however in the bottom of the fifth inning when nine-hitter freshman Hope Alley reached via a bunt single. Alley was moved over on a ground ball by Crawford, and driven in by senior shortstop Megan Shackley.
Quick to answer right back, Alhambra again did it with the long ball. Perez singled on the second pitch of the inning and set up Karlee Sparacino.
In previous at bats Sparacino looked as if she was having trouble seeing what Scates had to offer, and the first two pitches she saw in her at bat in the top of the sixth saw her looking over rmatched.
But in an 0-2 count, Sparacino got a hold of one and deposited over the left-center field wall for a two-run home run.
And once again Alhambra had a lead via the long ball.
This time Whitworth wouldn’t give in. She threw a gutsy bottom half of the sixth inning where she recovered from a pair of walks to get out of the inning. She would get away with a lead off single in the seventh as well, as some fine defensive work from her infield eliminated the lead runner on a fielder’s choice.
Then Sparacino turned a double play to get away with the win right before reaching the heart of the Foothill order and to preserve the opening win of the weekend.
