Bles slam leads T-Girls to SCL tournament title

Petaluma took advantage of a patient approach at the plate to overwhelm Sonoma Valley, 11-1, and the T-Girls captured the final Sonoma County Tournament softball title at Sebastopol on Thursday afternoon. It was a fitting victory for the T-Girls, who captured the regular-season league SCL crown and held two previous victories over the second-place Dragons. Both teams will move to the Vine Valley Athletic League next season.

Petaluma worked two Dragon pitchers for 11 walks and took advantage of some key hits to win the game in only six frames. Freshman shortstop Rachael Bles powered a home run over the left-field fence with the bases juiced in the second inning to provide quick separation between the two teams.

Lost in the final statistics was a prolonged at bat by third baseman Maddie King, whose eight-pitch appearance at the plate earned her a walk and enabled the hard-hitting Bles an opportunity against Sonoma starter Kennedy Midgley. King fouled off numerous two-strike pitches down the right-field line to finally earn the free pass. Bles then drilled a long fly ball that kept going, and the Trojans were up 4-0.

Midgley, who won the semifinal game against tournament host Analy the day before, was a victim of a tight strike zone, and she didn’t miss by much. The frustrated left-hander was outside of the black part of the plate with most of her pitches.

Bles had a triple in her first appearance at the plate, but was stranded at the bag when Midgley got out of trouble with three consecutive outs. Bles, who captured the league MVP award, came back to hit a fat pitch in the zone out of the park. Her violent practice swings gave indication of a powerful stroke that followed in game situation.

Petaluma pitcher Mandy O’Keefe took advantage of her team’s big lead to earn the victory. O’Keefe struck out only two batters, but she was more successful in pitching to contact with balls in and close to the strike zone. Trojan coach Kurt Jastrow explained that the sophomore uses a screwball to keep batters off stride. She got terrific support from her defense.

In the top of the fourth inning, center fielder Chandler Mevis peeled a long fly ball off the top of the fence for the first out.

The next batter hit a ground ball that rolled by third baseman Brooke Symons but was backhanded by Bles at short, who threw to first to nail the runner. A nice stretch by first baseman Grace Ghiradelli made the difference on the play.

The final pitch of the game by O’Keefe was a straight change that buckled the knees of Dragon batter Jordyn Chiotti.

Petaluma ended the game in the bottom of the sixth with five runs off of reliever Chiotti. Run-scoring hits by Emma and Kaleigh Weiand highlighted the frame.

Indy Smith had two hits for the Trojans, who improved to 20-5 for the season.

Jaya Garcia had two hits for the Dragons, who finished 13-12 for the season.