Sonoma Valley High softball coach Keeley Ray could only shake her head.
Wednesday, the Lady Dragons pounded out 11 hits on their way to a 14-2 win over Analy in the opening round of the Sonoma County League Tournament.
She was hoping the bats would continue to be alive in Thursday’s championship game against Petaluma. But the Lady Dragons managed only three hits in an 11-1 loss that only went six innings because of the 10-run rule.
“I don’t know why,” she said. “We were aggressive when we played Analy, but timid against Petaluma.”
Petaluma beat the Lady Dragons three times this year – twice by the 10-run rule.
“We just didn’t square anything up today,” Ray said.
Neither team could score in the first inning, although the Petaluma lead-off batter hit a triple, the Trojans couldn’t drive her home.
The Trojans took a 4-0 lead in the second inning with three walks and a grand slam homer.
Sonoma got one of the runs back in the top of the third when Jaya Garcia singled, Kennedy Midgley singled and Kaliyah Hensic walked to load the bases. Ally Alcayaga hit a sacrifice fly scoring Garcia. Abby Alcayaga then got hit by a pitch, loading the bases again with only one out, but an infield pop-out and an infield out ended that threat.
Petaluma got that run back in their half of the third on a double and a single. It could have been more, but a Petaluma runner was out at the plate trying to score from second on another single.
The Lady Dragons were held in check in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings before the Trojans put the game away scoring six runs in the bottom of the sixth.
In the sixth, the Trojans used two singles, three walks, three errors and a hit by a pitch to string together six runs for the 11-1 win.
“We just didn’t make adjustments,” Ray said. “We had lots of pop-outs. While we hit two to the fence, they were still long outs.”
“It’s not like Petaluma and Analy are that different. But Petaluma’s in our head,” she said.
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