Grizzlies cruise in Orange Belt showdown

It would appear that Granite Hills and Strathmore softball are heading in opposite directions at the Strathmore Tournament.

But Friday’s 8-0 rout by the Grizzlies was more simply a case of what the bigger schools are supposed to do — beat up on the smaller ones.

Both coaches admitted as much, with Granite’s first-year coach Terry Williams coming away impressed by the Spartans.

“Strathmore’s a good team,” he said after his Grizzlies held Strathmore to two hits and zero runs. “They’ll be competitive in ESL.”

Added Strathmore coach Jenny Boone: “I think we played well considering our starters didn’t start and we had some errors in the beginning.”

At the end of the day, so far, the Grizzlies (4-0) are dominating Strathmore’s own tournament and will likely collide with 4-0 Lindsay in pool play next Saturday. (The playoffs were originally scheduled for today, but rain-postponed games were rescheduled for today instead.)

Meanwhile, Strathmore falls to 1-3 on the season, a figure that seems misleading since the core of the Spartans were brought up from a junior varsity that terrorized the league last year.

But on Friday, it was all Granite from the get-go, starting with Tommi Harlien’s RBI that scored Zoe Kisling for a 1-0 lead at the top of the first.

The Grizzlies exploded against Strathmore starting pitcher Sarah Gonzales in the second inning with four more runs.

Jennifer Landers’ bunt single loaded the bases for Deanna Alamillo, who entered the game batting .928 in three games.

Alamillo belted a hard shot to left field that brought in both Landers and Debra Rodriguez.

Several pitches later, Kisling repeated Alamillo’s feat with another two-RBI shot out to center field for a commanding 5-0 lead.

Both Alamillo and Kisling went 2-for-4 from the plate while Alamillo added three stolen bases.

“Deanna’s a slugger; she’s putting the bat on the ball,” Williams said of Alamillo. “I asked all of our seniors to step it up. Zoe’s stepped it up this year, too.”

Junior pitcher Kaitlin Fife put in another solid outing against the Spartans, striking out seven and walking one. She’s already thrown a no-hitter in this week’s tournament.

“This was a typical game for her,” Williams said of Fife. “She’s averaging seven or eight strikeouts per game. I believe she can be one of the best in the league and she’s only a junior.”

Gonzales and Hailey Tsuboi each struck out one while allowing a combined seven hits for Strathmore, which recorded five errors on the night.

One of those errors turned into a blessing, however, during an unusual end to the top of the third inning after Granite’s Marissa Martinez popped up to shortstop Jocylen Lemus.

Lemus dropped the ball, which confused Granite runners Fife and Alcantar, who were tagging up on the bases. Lemus quickly touched Alcantar and stepped on second to force Fife out.

Williams chalked it up to his girls’ base-running tendencies, which usually pay off for big runs.

“We’re very aggressive and the girls take their leads off the bases,” Williams said.

Granite shortstop Marykate Herrera stole four bases to add to her total of 15 in four games, while Alamillo now has 21 in all. Herrera added two hits while playing solid defense.

“This was one of (Herrera’s) better games,” Williams said. “She gets down and attacks the ball.”

The Grizzlies have now outscored their last four opponents by a margin of 56-3.

“This tournament is really opening our girls’ eyes up and see what kind of team we have,” said Williams, who spent six years as an assistant under coach Lance Wallace at Porterville High. “We’re deep; I still don’t know who my starters are yet. What’s most important is that they’re happy, having fun and winning.”

Gonzales and Tsuboi recorded the only hits for the Spartans, who nevertheless are looking up after dropping three straight.

After a particularly dispiriting 8-0 loss to Laton on Thursday, Boone saw a change in the attitudes of her Spartans.

“I think they played a lot better and stayed positive,” she said. “I just told them, ‘Hey, we did a great job. We need to work on cutting down the errors and once we do, we’ll be in a lot of games.”

The Grizzlies host Woodlake on Tuesday before visiting Dinuba on Wednesday. They’ll return to complete the Strathmore Tournament next Saturday.

The Spartans play Parlier on Tuesday.