Results tagged “Yucaipa High School Girls Softball” from Yucaipa Now

By Bob Otto / Staff Photographer

YUCAIPA - Slower pitchers tend to give the Lady Thunderbird hitters trouble. And for five innings, right-hander Katherine Flores of the El Rancho Dons of Pico Rivera (13-13) had Yucaipa out in front of her slow drop and change up, but in the sixth the slow stuff didn't fool Yucaipa anymore and they erupted for four runs to defeat the Dons, 6-3, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division II Playoffs at home on Thursday.

"The off speed slower pitches kill us," said Yucaipa Head Coach, Dave Kivett. "They have a hard time sitting back and waiting for the ball to get in their zone, but they made the adjustment and stayed within themselves and then we started hitting the ball."

Yucaipa (22-8) held a slim, 2-1, lead heading into the sixth - on the strength of shortstop Megan Allen's bat. The #4 four hitter in the lineup gave Yucaipa a 1-0 lead in the first inning by lacing a single to center-field to score Shelby Vanderwall, who led off the inning with a double. And then in the fifth her rocket into the shortstop-third base hole chased home Vanderwall again with the second run.

Yucaipa held on to that slim 2-1 advantage thanks to the solid pitching of Jessica English. The senior right-hander with an explosive rise ball came on in the third to relieve starter Tracy Hampton with two outs and El Rancho threatening with runners on first and third.

But English blew away Kristina Hernandez with a letter-high inside riser to escape the inning.

"Their pitcher (English) did a great job and had us swinging under her rise ball," said El Rancho Head Coach, Stephanie Senteno-Tapia. "Our biggest problem was we left too many on base when we had the chance to take the lead. "

By Bob Otto / Staff Photographer

YUCAIPA - The Fontana Steelers defeated the Yucaipa Lady T-Birds, 5-3, in Citrus Belt League play on Tuesday, May 12. See the teams in action.

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The pitching of Jessica English, and the hitting of Megan Allen - both seniors - will be counted on to help put the Thunderbirds in the win column in the 2009 season, which begins on Saturday.
By Bob Otto / Staff Photographer

YUCAIPA - In fastpitch softball, a team's ability to win largely comes down to answering this question:

"How good is our pitching?"

The Yucaipa High Thunderbirds can safely answer, "Pretty darn good, thank you for asking."

Senior, Jessica English has been a varsity member since her freshman year. The right-handed, windmiller with a good rise ball and change up will once again be counted on to anchor Yucaipa's pitching staff.

Yucaipa plays in the 8-team, Citrus Belt League, where they have competed for league titles year-after-year. But last season they uncustomarily slipped to fifth place with a 8-6 record, 16-13 overall.

However, pitching wasn't the problem. In league play, English was among the CBL pitching leaders with 13 wins (4th best); and in earned run average allowing but 1.88 runs in seven innings, she ranked 5th best. And she was the league's best in strikeouts with 233.