Day two of the Nor Cal Tournament did not end well for the Pitman Pride softball team as they dropped two consecutive games against Argonaut and Escalon High on Friday at West High in Tracy.
The game against Argonaut started hot for the Pride, who took a quick 2-0 lead after the first inning. But a quick pitching swap the next inning gave the Argonaut squad all the momentum as they shut out the Pride and scored four in the third followed by five in the fourth to win it 9-2.
In the second game, the Pride and Escalon clashed in a defensive battle that didn’t see much offense — except for the first inning — and the Cougars clinched a close 1-0 win.
“The tournament was tough, especially without Liz Segers, who hurt her foot. She is a senior and one of the team leaders and we need her for league instead, so I rested her,” Pitman head coach Joe Lewis said.
Despite the disappointing turnout, Lewis said it was a good experience as the entire team got to see playing time against opponents they rarely go up against during the regular season.
“We got everyone to play in this tournament, because now if they need to be called on they are ready to go during the rest of the season,” Lewis said.
In the morning matchup, rain slowed the pace of the game down for the Pride who only tallied three hits for the game. Then the Argonaut off speed pitching held the Pride scoreless for six of the seven innings.
“No one got multiple hits. We started out 2-0 on them then they changed pitchers in the second inning and then we couldn’t hit, it was a slow pitcher, I have never seen that before,” Lewis said about Argonaut who had 10 hits.
Pitman committed four errors and allow over three runs by way of the errors.
“It was just one of those days and the morning game was raining and still couldn’t hit, we were really off balance, pitching was slower than what were used to and couldn’t get the timing down either,” said Lewis.
In the Escalon game, the Pride started Hannah Martel at the mound but one minor mistake at third base allowed the first and only run of the game to score in the first inning.
Both Escalon and Pitman totaled five hits apiece while Pitman’s Nicole Bailey was 2-for-4. For the Pride 13 outs came by fly outs.
“You are not going to get anything done when hitting fly balls,” Lewis said. “We just couldn’t put hits together, the five hits were spread, and one hit in every inning in the first five innings.”
After concluding the tournament, the Pride have their eyes set on the big game on Tuesday as they will travel to play against CCC second place Buhach Colony, with the game scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.
“It’s pretty big because the number two seed goes to the Nor Cal tournament in Sacramento if we get third you might get a home game or go up north like we did a few years ago, better to go first or second,” Lewis added.
