A bid for a perfect season came to halt on Wednesday, May 2 for the Oakdale High School varsity girls softball team. Following an emotional Senior Day 2018 celebration where teammates and coaches paid tribute to the five senior players, Oakdale suffered its first loss of the season to visiting Sierra.
Behind the pitching of Sierra’s (15-4, 13-1) Lindsey Walljasper, Oakdale (19-1, 12-1) struggled offensively and were shut out 1-0. This was the first time Oakdale had been shut out since losing to Sierra 2-0 on the road on May 3, 2017.
In a scoreless game, Sierra took a 1-0 advantage on a wild pitch from Lexi Webb that scored Samantha Lorge from third base in the top of the sixth inning. Webb pitched a complete game and gave up four hits and surrendered only one walk.
Oakdale’s usually powerful bats were silent as they combined for just one hit and it was freshman Riley Goodridge who notched a single in the second inning. Oakdale was issued three walks and had runners in scoring position four times but could not bring them home. Behind Webb, the Lady Mustangs defense continued to play well as outfielders Chloe Vierra, Dakota Gray and Jazzlyn Velasquez all made difficult catches.
“My coaches have complete confidence in me. My teammates have my back and make great plays all over the field. They put in great work and we all feed off of each other,” said Gray.
Oakdale had the tying run at third with two outs but Marissa Moffatt was left 90 feet away from tying the game following the final out by Velasquez.
“Walljasper pitched a great game against us,” said Oakdale head coach Larry Loger.
Walljasper struck out 15 batters.
“The way we had been scoring runs, it was hard to believe that we would be shut out. We had our opportunities but could not bring them home. We will take it and learn from it,” Loger added.
Oakdale’s five senior players are Chloe Vierra, Kristen Reid, Adrianna Aguilar, Dakota Gray and Grace Green.
“We honored the players and their families before the game. I want to thank Mr. Peter Simoncini for announcing our games this season as well,” Loger said.
The following day Oakdale got back to their winning ways as they defeated Central Catholic (8-14, 4-10) at Rainbow Fields by a 15-2 final. The Lady Mustangs scored seven first inning runs and Webb pitched three strong innings to earn the win. Brittany Bye went 2-for-3 with four RBI, Webb had a three-run double and Green added an RBI.
The Lady Mustangs completed the regular season on Tuesday, May 8 at East Union (17-6, 10-3) following The Leader’s press time.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Oakdale earned a 10-0 home win over Sierra. Central Catholic did not have a junior varsity team thus the Sierra game was Oakdale’s lone action of the week. Pitcher Cortney Koelmans pitched a perfect game in the win. Koelmans got help from her defense and at the plate Laney Lee hit a triple while Amber Robinson and Rachel Haakma each had a multi-hit game.
