Dos Pueblos’ leadoff hitter Maddy Buie reached base in all three plate appearances on Tuesday. (Presidio Sports Photos)
Dos Pueblos’ Lani Evans pitched a no-hitter on Tuesday and added a two-run double and three RBI at the plate.
Lani Evans made it easy on the defense behind her, getting 11 of the 15 outs in Tuesday’s CIF opener against Culver City on strikeouts. The Dos Pueblos junior didn’t allow a hit along the way in an 11-0 decision that was cut short after four and a half innings because of the run rule.
A hard wind was blowing in from left field throughout the game, affecting the flight of the ball on all pop-ups and even making it hard on the pitchers’ control.
“It was actually a little hard because the wind,” Evans said. “I usually try to live on the inside corner but obviously the wind was blowing the opposite way so I don’t even know what (the pitches) were doing half the time but I tried to make it work.”
Chargers catcher Jade Sinskul had the task of managing the hard-throwing hurler.
“Lani has so much movement, it was hard seeing where everything was going,” Sinskul said.
Evans faced one more batter than the minimum possible in five innings. She struck out seven straight batters at one point, including three on nine pitches in third inning.
“She actually popped a vein in my finger today she threw so hard,” Sinskul said. “I always count the pitches until it gets over ten and then I just stop. But I was getting into it. I said, ‘let’s go, let’s get one more.’ It was really impressive.”
The offense gave Evans plenty of run support early on as the Chargers scored three runs in the first and six more in the second inning to quickly build a 9-0 lead over the Centaurs.
Evans is equally dangerous at the plate. going 2-for-3 with three RBI. Her one out would have been a home run on a normal day but the wind knocked it down just inside the outfield fence.
“I was so mad,” Evans said. “Right when I hit it, I was like ‘ooh, this felt good’, and then I was rounding first and it was just a fly ball to left field.”
Leadoff hitter Maddy Buie reached base in all three of her plate appearances. Ady Willett, Alison Milam and Sinskul produced two-RBI hits. The Chargers sent 11 batters to the plate during their six-run second inning. Melissa Spink scored three runs as a courtesy runner before spending an inning manning the outfield.
“We stayed hyper and pumped the whole way. Even though we were winning by a lot, we still kept our energy up,” explained Chargers first baseman Alison Milam.
The Chargers will face Monrovia in Thursday’s second round at a location to be decided by coinflip on Wednesday morning. The same two teams clashed in CIF last year, with Dos Pueblos taking a 2-1 victory.
“Tomorrow we’re going to focus on hitting because we anticipate Monrovia has a good pitcher that we faced last year and only scored two runs off of,” said Dos Pueblos head coach Jon Uyesaka.
Dos Pueblos, which has four-straight 20-win seasons, improves to 21-6.
Culver City, which finished behind Santa Monica and Hawthorne in the Ocean League, finishes its season with a record of 14-10.
Dos Pueblos’ Melissa Spink, who scored three times, gets off the bag at second base.
