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Clovers pick up first WCC win
CLOVERDALE -- CHS Coach Chuck Mowery said in the beginning of the season the one thing he wants the Lady Clovers to do this year is to score runs.
Message received loud and clear.
Cloverdale picked up its first West Central Conference win Wednesday night when it defeated Monrovia 7-3.
Cloverdale scored a run in every inning except two, the second and the sixth, but had runners in scoring position both innings.
"We hit the ball well today," Mowery said. "We have been doing a lot of batting practice this past week and it's paying off."
That's one way of putting it.
Cloverdale banged out 12 hits, which included three doubles and a triple by Kara Knapp. Along with getting their hitting down, Cloverdale ironed out some of its base running issues as it had five RBIs on the night.
Two of those RBIs came from Brianna Hoff's double with two more coming from Paige Gutierrez's double and single. Gutierrez also stole home in the bottom of the first when Monrovia's catcher, Eryn Dillon, tried to gun down Katie Fulkerson at second.
But not even those things impressed Mowery as much as what his team did in the sixth inning.
After the Bulldogs scored a run on a dropped fly ball at shortstop and then scored another run on a ground ball double that made its way past the infield, Cloverdale didn't sit there and wallow in pity. They made plays and ended a potentially disastrous inning.
"We had an error here and there that hurt us in the sixth, and that's OK because that is part of high school softball. But what I liked was that they came back and made the plays they needed to," Mowery said. "They kept their heads in the game and that was the main thing.
"We made some mental errors today, but those are starting to decrease I've noticed, and I'm happy with that," Mowery added.
Leading the Lady Clovers' hit parade was Knapp, who went 3-for-4 and had an RBI triple. Also coming up big for Cloverdale was Gutierrez, who was 2-for-4 for the day and had an RBI double and single. Brianna Hoff also had a two-run double.
Gutierrez led the Clovers from the mound, striking out six Bulldogs while allowing six hits and thee runs, two of which were earned.
Cloverdale is now 4-2 on season and 1-2 in the WCC and will travel to Monrovia today for the conclusion of its series with the Bulldogs.
At Cloverdale
Monrovia 001 002 0 -- 3 6 2
Cloverdale 201 220 X -- 7 12 1
WP -- Gutierrez
LP -- Hadley
HR -- Hadley (MO)
3B -- Knapp (CL)
2B -- Rednour (MO), Witt (MO), Gutierrez (CL), Shepherd (CL), Hoff (CL)
Next Game -- Cloverdale travels to Monrovia for a 4:30 p.m. game