Vanden downs Vacaville in opener
Gray pitches a two-hitter for the Vikings
The entire Vanden High infield was wearing masks during its home game against Vacaville High on Wednesday afternoon.
If the Viking infielders were worrying about catching COVID from the Bulldogs baserunners, Vanden pitcher Hazyl Gray put their fears to rest. She only allowed four Vacaville players to reach base and pitched a twohitter en route to a 3-1 victory in the Monticello Empire League opener for both teams.
Gray and battery mate Shawnese Hogue-Lacy provided the offensive firepower. In the bottom of the first, after a single by Mia Santos, Hogue-Lacy went opposite field with a perfectly placed double down the right field line to plate Santos. Gray, a left-handed batter, also went the other way, belting a long double to left to drive in her catcher.
The Vikings struck again in the second inning when Destiny
Harris led off with a towering triple down the left-field line. Sonya Rogers then drove her in with a groundout to second base.
That would be it for the Vikings’ offense against freshman pitcher Xochitl Atayde, who was outstanding on the mound.
But Gray was just a little bit better. The junior southpaw notched 11 strikeouts and has matured on the mound since her sensational freshman season. Last year was a washout for all the teams, as COVID cut the season short.
“She has really improved during our time not being together,” said Hogue-Lacy. “She picked up her speed and she has a really good mix of pitches.”
Vacaville finally reached Gray for its only run in the top of the sixth on a scorching double off the right-field wall by Acacia Anders and a solid single to left by Mia Lopez. But the damage could have been worse.
Cleanup hitter Makayla Freshour
came to the plate with two outs and Lopez on first. The big right-handed hitter hit a sizzling line drive to the left of Viking second baseman Mia Zabat.
Zabat dove headlong to her left and somehow snagged the ball in the webbing of her glove
just a few inches off the ground.
“I was playing up the middle and honestly I just reacted. I just dove for it,” said Zabat. “She pulls the ball a lot. I know her from travel ball. So I was not expecting her to go that way.”
The freshman, playing her first varsity game, made another outstanding play in the second inning on a blistering shorthop liner off the bat of leadoff hitter Anders. Zabat flipped her glove down to stop the ball’s momentum, juggled it from her glove to her throwing hand, and nailed Anders at first.
“If our second baseman doesn’t catch those balls, that could be a different story,” said Vanden head coach Anthony Trujillo. “That just killed the momentum when she caught the line drive.”
Vacaville second baseman Jenna Potter made
a fine play of her own to cut off a Vanden run in the third inning. With one out, Hogue-Lacy hit a laser over third base for a single. Then, on a hit-andrun play, she broke for second as Gray swung. Potter didn’t bite on covering second, so when Gray hit a hard grounder between first and second, Potter had a chance. But the ball hit off the end of her glove and trickled out into short right field.
Trujillo waved HogueLacy home, but Potter never gave up on the ball, chasing it down and then unleashing a strike to the plate. Hogue-Lacy tried to elude the tag, but Freshour nabbed her.
“The ball is sitting 15 feet out there on the grass,” said Trujillo of his decision to send Hogue-Lacy. “It’s got
to be a perfect throw. I didn’t think she had a cannon like that.”
The rest of the game was a pitcher’s duel. Atayde scattered seven Viking hits and settled into a nice groove after the first couple of innings.
“I felt like we won the first half of the game and then I felt like they (Vacaville) did a good job in the second half,” Trujillo said.
Gray said she felt good in the circle.
“I wasn’t really nervous,” she said. “I was excited. I had a lot of adrenaline and I was just going. It was actually pretty fun to be back out here. And then to be catching with Shawnese. I mean I do it at practice and then it was fun in the game.”
While the 60-plus fans might have been aware,
Gray said she was not really thinking about the fact that she had a no-hitter going until Anders broke it up in the sixth inning.
The bleachers were taken down to assure social distancing, so fans had to bring their own chairs on a sunny but cool afternoon.
But everybody, especially the players, seemed happy to be out there.
“We just made a few little mistakes, but I made one myself,” said Trujillo. “For the first game, no scrimmages, six practices, I’m happy with what the kids did.”
Hogue-Lacy summed it up.
“It feels really good to be out here,” she said. “I’m excited for the season.”