T-Girls overcome miscues

The Petaluma High School T-Girls began a softball season of high hopes in scoreboard, if not artistic, successful fashion Tuesday evening, rallying from a five-run early deficit to defeat Montgomery, 12-7.|

The Petaluma High School T-Girls began a softball season of high hopes in scoreboard, if not artistic, successful fashion Tuesday evening, rallying from a five-run early deficit to defeat Montgomery, 12-7.

With a veteran-loaded lineup augmented by a host of impressive newcomers, the defending Sonoma County League champion T-Girls are optimistic about another good season and a deep run into the NCS playoffs.

Although they won rather handily on their home diamond in their opener, the Petalumans showed they have some settling in to do, especially in the field, where they committed six errors, three in the second inning when Montgomery’s Lady Vikings shocked their host with six runs.

“It is just the first game. We’ll be fine,” Petaluma coach Kurt Jastrow said. “I wasn’t too worried when we got behind. We can hit from top to bottom of the batting order.”

And hit the T-Girls did in their opener, slugging 10 hits with almost everyone contributing. Senior Joelle Krist picked up right where she left off last season with a single, double and triple, while fellow varsity veterans Cassie Baddeley and Paulina Binsfeld each had two hits.

Part of Petaluma’s defensive problems might have stemmed from a playoff-extended basketball season that kept several of the T-Girls, including Krist, Baddeley and pitcher Emily O’Keefe, off the diamond until just a week ago.

O’Keefe, expected to be Petaluma’s pitching mainstay, allowed just five hits, but she was hampered by her teammates’ glove problems, especially in the second inning when Montgomery picked up a six-pack of runs to put a brief, but real, scare into their hosts.

Petaluma got a run in its first at-bat of the season when Krist soared a long fly to left field that eluded the Montgomery outfielder and went for a triple. She scored on a wild pitch.

All kinds of badness happened to Petaluma in the Montgomery second with three hits, the three errors and a walk sending half a dozen Lady Vikings parading around the bases. The big belt in the inning was a bases-clearing double by Montgomery catcher Ashley Baker, who had two hits and a long fly out in the game.

Petaluma wasted little time in retaliating, scoring four times in the bottom of the inning on hits by Baddeley, Binsfeld, Brie Gerhardt and Krist.

With the game tied at 6-6, Montgomery briefly went ahead in the top of the fifth when Baker struck a long drive to left field for a double and scored on two T-girl errors on a single play.

Petaluma finally wiped away the Montgomery challenge in the last of the fifth when Montgomery’s own defense fell apart, contributing three errors to a six-run Petaluma rally that decided the game. Krist and Miranda Swanson had key hits for the T-Girls in the game-winning assault.

Although convinced that the T-Girls will continue to hit and quickly improve in the field, Jastow said it must happen quickly as they host a strong Pinole Valley team Thursday afternoon.

“That will be a good test for us,” he said. “We will have to play a lot better.”

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