Pitman High’s softball team notched up both a victory and a defeat Thursday in the first day of the Nor Cal Tournament, the biggest softball tournament in Northern California.
It was a doubleheader for the Pride, who completely handled Downey in the morning game, 10-1, but then faltered early on in the second contest and couldn’t rebuttal as they fell 7-3 to Manteca High at West High in Tracy.
“Under the circumstances, the girls did well. Take that one big inning and it was a different ball game against Manteca and we will come out ready to battle the next day as we always do,” Pitman head coach Joe Lewis said.
In the morning game against Downey, starting pitcher Sally Acosta had the game that most people wish as she tossed up a complete game and only gave up two hits and struck out seven.
To add to her already impressive day on the mound, from the plate she tacked on a perfect 4-for-4 day with two doubles.
Nicole Bailey would finish 3-for-4 as eight of the team’s nine starters finished with at least a hit.
Seven runs in the third sufficed for the Pride whose 7-0 lead transcended into 10-0 after the fifth inning.
In the second game against Manteca, the Pride came out flat as they allowed five runs in the first inning, three of which came after an error.
“It always seems to open the door for runs to score or people to be on when someone gets a hit or takes advantage of a throwing error,” Lewis said.
The only runs for Pitman would come in the third as the Pride added three to make it 5-3.
They held Manteca scoreless until the sixth when they added two more but by then the Pride had failed to score again with runners left in scoring position — four times in four innings.
“We just didn’t get timely hits we needed. We held them after that inning but would’ve been different if we didn’t give up those runs early,” Lewis said. “I like the resilience, the girls fought back after being down. I like that aspect, the thing we always continue to work on is the mental errors.”
Bailey was 3-for-4 again and Skylar Taylor, who sat the first game, was 2-for-3 in the second game. Junior Spencer Bronken would finish the second game 2-for-3 for the Pride.
The next games are set for 8 a.m. and noon Friday at West High against teams to be announced. Possible rain on Friday could delay and move the games over to Saturday said Lewis.
