The ball was like a greased pig for the Carpinteria softball team on Tuesday — hard to catch.
The Warriors committed five errors and visiting rival Bishop Diego took advantage, picking up a 14-2 mercy-rule win.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, had a pretty good grip on the ball.
“This was our first time actually playing all-around solid defense and offense,” said catcher Taylor DeVries, who grew up in Carpinteria and played nine years of youth softball with most of the Warriors. Pitcher Jennifer Jimenez and centerfielder Annette Gonzales are also Carpinteria natives and longtime friends with Tuesday’s opponents.
“At first it was weird, because you don’t know how to act towards them, but then everyone’s nice with it and it just becomes like a friendly rivalry,” said Jimenez, who picked up the win by pitching a 4-hitter in the 5-inning game. Gonzales picked up a triple and played second base.
“The key today was JJ throwing strikes and Taylor catching an absolutely solid game behind the plate,” said Cardinals coach Tom Beamer. “Our defense made one sparkling play after another.”
Beamer specifically pointed to first baseman Victoria Swan’s running catch of a foul ball to end the fourth inning, Gonzales’ snag of a line drive in a double-play to end the first, and center fielder Brittany Gignac’s catch of a deep fly that was over her head.
Many of the Warriors, meanwhile, had to play new positions due to missing some players.
“We have a commitment to school first, and some of our players didn’t fulfill school commitments,” said coach Devany Bechler. “That’s not an excuse though. We’re all good ball players and we should have been able to handle ourselves much better… We didn’t really show up.”
Dani Mendoza came in at shortstop and was a bright spot, as was sophomore Myriah Diaz, who fought through a knee injury to start at catcher and made a great tag at the plate to end the top of the second.
The Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first and couldn’t completely open the floodgates but still managed a pair of runs. Their big rallies came in a 5-run third and a 6-run fourth. Paige Sleep had a double on the day for the Cardinals’ other extra-base hit.
BISHOP DIEGO 14, CARPINTERIA 2
Bishop Diego…2 1 5 6 0 — 14 13 2
Carpinteria…….1 0 0 1 0 — 2 4 5
Jimenez and DeVries; Pearce, Crowfoot (4) and Diaz, Haeringer (4).
2B — BD: Sleep. 3B — BD: Gonzales.
Team records — BD 3-6, 1-2 Frontier, C 6-7, 1-2 Frontier.
