LIVERMORE FALLS – Mallory Thurston took advantage of the only mistake Danielle Gray made all day.
Thurston’s one-out double in the top of the sixth inning knocked in the tying and winning runs, lifting Mountain Valley to a 3-2 softball victory over Livermore Falls on Tuesday.
The senior right-hander mowed down the Falcons during the first five innings, striking out six batters while allowing one hit and nary a free pass.
The Falcons (2-2) finally reached Gray in the pivotal sixth. Kelly Palmer led off by lining a single to right field and promptly stole second to put herself in scoring position. Kaly Bernard followed with a bunt single just in front of the plate. After Bernard stole second, Tanya Nicols attempted to squeeze Palmer home with a bunt, but Gray charged in and threw home to nail Palmer for the first out. On the play, Nicols hustled down to second base.
Gray quickly got up 1-2 on Thurston, the Falcons’ clean-up hitter. Instead of throwing a change up, which had been her out pitch all game long, Gray left a fastball out over the plate. Thurston belted a towering drive into the left-field corner. The ball took one bounce before settling under the fence for a ground-rule double.
“I was looking for anything I could hit,” said Thurston, “as long as I could get the bat on the ball.”
“Danielle told me she should of thrown the change up,” said Livermore Falls coach Brent Hammond. “(Thurston) got out in front of it.”
Further damage was prevented as Gray (eight strikeouts) caught Megan Jolin looking and got Mountain Valley pitcher Abby Mills to ground out to second.
“She’s been having a great year,” said Hammond of his hurler. “She’s been mixing her speeds well.”
The Andies (1-5), who scored single runs in the first and third innings on RBIs from Sarah Hamilton, threatened in the bottom of the seventh. Lead-off hitter Erica Gats drew her fourth walk and stole second. Katie Warren tried twice to bunt Gats over to third, but fouled off both attempts. She then flew out to shallow right, forcing Gats to hold at second. Krista Allen reached on an infield error with Gats moving up to third, but two subsequent infield pop outs ended the game.
“We didn’t execute our small ball today,” said Hammond. “I emphasized to the girls that we need to do that in order to get to the next level, but this was by far our best game to date.”
Mills struggled with her control early, walking eight batters, including six in the first three frames. The Andies couldn’t take advantage of her early wildness and stranded seven runners in the first three innings and 10 for the game.
“Sometimes she has a tendency to throw the ball high,” said her father and assistant coach Brian Mills.
The Falcons were solid defensively. They threw one runner out at third and turned a double play in support Mills’ three-hit effort.
“Defense was the difference for us today. We made the plays that needed to be made.”
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