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Eagles top Bulldogs in battle for first place in CCAL
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Lauren Edh of Turlock High finished Tuesday’s game with a 2-for-3 performance from the plate and had two of the Bulldogs three hits for the game. Turlock fell to Enochs, 4-2 (EDDIE RUIZ/The Journal).

The battle for first place in varsity softball in the Central California Athletic League was on the line Tuesday when Turlock High hosted Enochs High in their third and final meeting of the regular season.

Turlock snapped a three-game winning streak after they left 10 runners on base and allowed four runs to cross home while their offense was limited to a pair of runs and they fell, 4-2.

“They threw a different pitcher today who hit her spots, good spins on the ball and forced a lot of pop ups, a lot of fly balls and we just weren’t able to execute,” said Turlock head coach Jill Ogden.

That starting pitcher for Enochs was sophomore Isabella Calvo, who pitched a complete game.

She also allowed just three hits.

So far, Turlock’s only three league losses have come at the hands of Enochs.

Enochs has lost to Pitman and Gregori thus far and are 9-2.

Turlock (7-3) is sitting in third place with Gregori at 8-3 following Tuesday’s results.

“We are a half game back since we have a makeup game, so we are just plugging along and working on what we need to and pushing those runners across and get ready for Thursday,” said Ogden.

Before getting ready for Thursday Turlock had a grand opportunity to take over first place.

They just had to get through the only team that had beaten them previously in league play.

“Last two times we felt like we kind of gave them those games. We had a lot of errors and left a lot of runners on base and this time we wanted to come out and be aggressive in the at-bats and minimize the errors. We played pretty good defense today, but we left 10 runners on base,” said Ogden.

Turlock committed eight errors combined in the first two games against Enochs.

This time around they committed just one over seven innings played.

A total of 10 runners were left on base, however, and it came in crucial moments.

Enochs capitalized early with two runs scored in the top of the first.

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the third.

Faith Erb cut the lead to 2-1 after she scored from third base, following an error at second base.

Enochs tacked on two more runs in the top of the fourth inning after Morgan Leonard and Gwyneth Ludwig each had RBI hits that extended the lead to 4-1.

Faith Hernandez of Turlock added the final and only earned run for the Bulldogs when she hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth that made it 4-2, despite bases loaded during the inning.

“It is a long season and I think they will respond; they always work hard at practice and shake these things off so we hope we will get back after it immediately and get ready for Modesto,” said Ogden.

Turlock starter Shelby Frutoz tossed a complete game, going seven innings and allowed eight hits, four earned runs and struck out seven after facing 33 at-bats—the most all year.

She also finished with a season-high in pitches thrown with 111 for the game.

Lauren Edh of Turlock was 2-for-3 and had two of the Bulldogs’ three hits for the game.

About seven hits were hit directly at the opposing defender.

Turlock will next travel to Modesto High to take on the Panthers at 3:45 p.m. Thursday.