Wobbly defense proves costly for Casa Grande softball girls

Montgomery took advantage of some wobbly defense in the early going by host Casa Grande, and the Lady Vikings coasted to a convincing 15-3 win on a chilly Thursday afternoon.

While most of the balls in the first three frames were well struck by the Vikings, several were directly at the feet of the Lady Gaucho infielders who committed six errors and turned the game into a lopsided bit of pay back. Casa had beaten Montgomery 9-6 the previous week in play at the Ukiah softball tournament.

The biggest tormentor wearing a red uniform on this day was sophomore first baseman Sierra Shanoff who knocked in four runs for the afternoon, and hit a long two-run homer in the fifth inning. It was the third four master of the season for Shanoff who went into the game hitting a robust .583. The Lady Vikings finished with 10 hits.

Montgomery pitcher Jessica Valencia had an easy afternoon, sailing through the four innings on only 29 pitches. On many cases, the Casa hitters were first-ball swinging, and seven outs were recorded on fly balls.

The Lady Vikings (8-3) were very aggressive at the plate against Gaucho starter Kalia Aiwohi and reliever Alauna Rico. Seven runs crossed the plate in the top of the second inning, but Aiwohi was only charged with two of them because of Gaucho fielding miscues and ensuing wild throws.

At one point, Montgomery added a bit of insult by executing a successful double steal while they were leading 13-0.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Casa got into the scoring column off Valencia when Desiree Champagne-Terrell came off the bench to rope a high drive off the right fence for an inning-opening double. A single and an infield error loaded the bases for the top of the Gaucho lineup.

Rico kept the rally alive by lining an off-field single into left to plate the first run. Second baseman Allison Andrews followed with an RBI single and the runners advanced one base.

After a fielder’s choice plated the third run in the frame, the proceedings were rudely interrupted when Viking third baseman Ashley Baker made a spectacular stop of a ground ball off the bat of Christina Wilson. Baker quickly crawled to third base ahead of the Casa base runner for the rally killing out.

Overall, the host Lady Gauchos had six base hits with Rico leading the way with a pair of singles. Rico now has picked up four hits in the first two NBL games for Casa Grande (2-7).