ALVIN - Nothing says happy Mother’s Day like 14 innings of shutout ball and your ace hurler looking refreshed and invigorated.
Madison Applebe was that refreshed and invigorated pitcher, giving more than a dozen mothers who were wearing maroon and gold that special gift of an Area softball championship, following a 5-0 romp over Pearland at Alvin High School Saturday night.
Coupled with Friday night’s tense 1-0 triumph, head coach Amy Vidal’s club surges into the Region III quarterfinals against Brazoswood this week, which eliminated Atascocita this weekend, winning 2-of-3.
Applebe, who didn’t appear to be quite as crisp in a win over North Shore last week, looked more herself, especially after a first inning in which she forced Pearland to leave the bases loaded.
She retired 18 of the final 22 batters she faced and even one of those looked questionable when the ball appeared to hit the batter in the batter’s box. No Lady Oiler ever stepped on third base after the first inning.
“Stellar. She was very good tonight. She stepped up big-time. She’s worked on some things and you can definitely tell,” Vidal said.
“All of my pitches were working very well. Speed was good and my defense was working behind me,” Applebe said. “My drop ball was probably my best.”
Pearland’s failure to hit with runners in scoring position led to its demise. Applebe forced the Lady Oilers to go 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Pearland was 0-for-2 in the first, 0-for-2 in the third and 0-for-2 in the seventh.
Coupled with Pearland going 0-for-10 with girls in scoring position on Friday night, thanks to the pitching of Hannah Benavides, it meant the team was 0-for-16 for the series.
“That’s awesome defense,” said Applebe, who struck out seven and walked two.
For the second consecutive night, left hander Abigail Gutierrez was the starting and losing pitcher. She departed the pitching circle after 3 and 2/3 innings and was responsible for four of the five runs. She was victimized by shaky defense in the second inning and a three-run uprising in the fourth, the inning when she surrendered four singles.
Deer Park, which was 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position and 4-of-14 for the series, staged a one-out rally in the fourth.
In a sorely-needed stretch where five of six Lady Deer batters reached base, Applebe singled to center, Haiden Hardcastle ripped a shot off the third baseman’s body and Haley Wilkerson was intentionally walked to load the bases, hoping to create a double play scenario.
Instead, Erin Perez drove home courtesy runner Kayla Zaid with a sacrifice fly to right field and Lorelei Graham singled home Hardcastle and Emma Overla singled home Wilkerson.
Reanna Nieman scored the team’s first run in the second inning when Pearland threw two balls away and Addison Lehew plated Graham in the seventh.
“I didn’t think we were as good offensively tonight as we were last night. We had too many strikeouts. We strung the hits together and that makes all the difference in the world. I thought we did a better job in the box, making sure we were putting the ball in play with two strikes last night. Tonight, I felt we didn’t do as good of a job of doing that. I mean, you’re always going to critique yourself and I think we could have done better. We had some good shots, some big shots,” Vidal said.
ravery@hcnonline.com
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Applebe, Lady Deer blank Pearland 5-0 to secure Area title - Houston Chronicle
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