Balanced Cardinals breeze by Central Valley Christian

Two things can be inferred from Lindsay softball’s 6-1 victory over Central Valley Christian during Day 2 of the Strathmore Tournament on Tuesday.

1.) At 2-0 after beating the first two opponents (they played Farmersville on Monday) by a combined score of 22-5, this year’s version of the Cardinals could be even scarier than last year’s squad that went 11-1 in league play.

2.) They’re doing it without a real superstar — a role in which pitcher Cassie Manning seemed to relish last year.

“We’re deep,” Lindsay coach Brett Kendig said afterward. “We have 12, 13 girls that can all play.”

For starters, they have four pitchers who could fill Manning’s role this season: sisters Hayley and Kassidy Kendig, Kelcey Knutson and Sammie Jauregui.

Kendig also listed four of his speediest runners who helped to rack up the dozen or so stolen bases: Jauregui, Alexsis Arguelles, Sylvia Rocha and Vanessa Gutierrez. Rocha was inserted as a pinch runner on multiple occasions, quickly stealing second and third.

“We have good overall team speed,” Kendig said.

To the Cavaliers’ credit, CVC was without three of its top infielders, who are currently occupied with the girls’ basketball playoffs.

But Lindsay just inserted four of its own hoops players, who wrapped up their postseason with a loss against Mission Prep on Friday.

“This is only their second game without any practice,” Kendig said. “They’re still getting used to being on the field.”

It looks like they’ll be able to take as much time as they need to catch up to speed with the way Jauregui and Knutson are playing.

Knutson smacked a solo home run — a first in her career — off the first pitch of the fifth inning.

The left fielder collected three hits in four at-bats, including a crucial RBI single in the middle of a three-run, third-inning outburst.

“Kelcey tore it up last year,” Kendig said. “She’s probably the best hitter in the league right now.”

Jauregui churned out two hits and touched home plate twice using some shifty base-running skills.

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead when CVC pitcher Monica Silva was called for a series of illegal pitches with runners on second and third in the first inning.

Gutierrez walked to get the rally going in the third, followed by Jauregui’s bunt and Knutson’s hard single.

Rachel Marie Ruiz’s sacrifice fly brought home Jauregui and Veronica Millan’s hard single to left field plated Knutson for a 4-0 lead.

“We’d like to get a run in every inning if we can; that’s our goal,” Kendig said. “But it’s those big innings that win ball games. One big inning and that’s all it takes.”

At the top of the fifth, Kassidy Kendig hit a line-drive double to left field that brought in Rocha, who was pinch running for Millan to make it 6-0.

The Cavaliers tried to mount a pair of rallies in the fourth and fifth innings with little success.

At the bottom of the fourth, Shayannah Coffman, Silva and Lauren Smith loaded the bases to give Hayley Kendig a potentially dangerous scenario with one out remaining. But Michaela Mellema’s short hit led to Coffman’s tag at home by fielder’s choice.

CVC shortstop Kinsie Walters nailed a towering triple to right field in the fifth that was cleaned up by second baseman Kelly Borges’ single.

But that was the lone run as Kassidy Kendig forced three ground outs and struck out another to close the game. The freshman allowed two hits in the final two innings.

Hayley Kendig earned the win after striking out five and allowing two hits and zero runs in the first four innings.

“They have new coaches and their pitcher (Silva) is real focused this year,” Kendig said of CVC. “We’ve just had their number the last couple of years.”

If they keep this up, the Cardinals may have everyone’s number this year.

Lindsay continues Strathmore Tournament play today against Woodlake. Pool play begins Saturday.