Roundup: Saugus keeps rolling against Golden Valley, Hart offense explodes in win over Castaic
Canyon High School senior Jessica Carr is in the midst of a run that most softball players could only dream of.
A star pitcher for the Cowboys, Carr gave up just four hits and struck out nine on Thursday at home against the Valencia Vikings on her way to leading Canyon to a 2-0 shutout, the first time Canyon has beaten Valencia since 2011.
Her third consecutive shutout extends her scoreless innings streak to 19, with 34 strikeouts in those contests and just eight hits allowed. Carr’s teammates ran to her after the final out was recorded on Thursday and celebrated with an impromptu mosh pit.
“It’s been a struggle, and we’ve been really working on getting our defense where it has to be to keep great teams like Valencia at zero runs, and to get some timely hitting,” Carr said. “That’s how we got our two runs in the first and we just kept hanging on.”
The Cowboys (6-7, 2-2) got both of their runs in the bottom of the first. Sophomore Maci Dunagan led off the frame with a double before Carr drove her in with a single. Senior Isabella Heasley then drove in the second run with her own single.
Dunagan and Heasley both had two hits on the day.
“Maci gets it going,” Carr said. “That’s why she’s leadoff — she gets our bats going.”
From there, Carr and Valencia (7-4, 3-2) senior Carly Kearns, the two-time reigning Foothill League Pitcher of the Year, matched each other almost blow for blow until Kearns was relieved in the sixth inning. Kearns finished with nine strikeouts and one earned run against her on five hits and two walks.
“She’s pitching as hard as she can and as tough as she can,” said Valencia head coach Sean Pollard. “I felt like we should have had some of those outs in the first inning, too, that we should have made plays on, but didn’t.”
Carr didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning on Thursday. Canyon head coach Todd Wensley said she has been dealing with a back issue during the early part of the season, but now that she’s healthy, the results are starting to show how good she can be.
Carr is now up to 95 strikeouts in 75 1/3 innings pitched. Her season ERA is down to 3.81, though that is inflated by eight runs given up against both Saugus and Heritage Christian, and seven against Heritage Christian.
In her other 10 appearances in the circle, only 18 runs have been scored against her.
“Riseball was working,” Carr said. “Kept trying to get them to swing under it, so either get a pop up or a swing and a miss. Screwball was working. It seemed like they couldn’t really track the movement, so I was just trying to get good balls hit for my defense to help.”
Wensley said he’s looking forward to seeing how his team stacks up against Saugus, leaders of the Foothill League at 5-0, when the Cowboys travel to face the Centurions on April 15.
With Carr and some timely hitting like Canyon showed on Thursday against the two-time defending league champions, Wensley thinks that the Cowboys can be the surprise team in the league.
“I think we’re going to be in a lot of games,” Wensley said. “And as the Valencia coach said, we’re probably going to surprise a few people … It started with them. We just got to hit. We know Jess is going to do her thing, and we need to get timely hitting, which we did, and take it from there.”
Canyon is at home on Tuesday against Castaic. Valencia is on the road again, at Golden Valley.
Here’s what else happened in Thursday’s Foothill League softball action:
Saugus 11, Golden Valley 1: The Saugus Centurions (12-4, 5-0) are showing no signs of slowing down, beating the Golden Valley Grizzlies (4-7, 0-4) at home on Thursday, 11-1.
Amelia Johnson hit a home run, a double and scored three times for Saugus. Riley Bennett drove in two runs and Jordan Shepherd had two hits, a run and an RBI.
Riley Nelson struck out eight and allowed just one hit over five innings.
Hart 15, Castaic 4: The Hart Hawks (4-8, 2-2) scored multiple runs in each of the first three innings on Thursday en route to a 15-4 victory over the Castaic Coyotes (7-6, 1-2).
Hannah Cook smashed two home runs for Hart and drove in seven runs as part of a three-hit day. Sadie Curtis also hit a homer and drove in three runs as part of her three-hit day.
Jessica Gutierrez had three hits for Hart as well, while Bella Melgoza and Bella Marquez each had two hits.
Lulu Smith and Alexia Avila each had a double for Castaic.
Cook and Faith Wolbrock, both freshmen, combined for Hart’s five innings in the circle. Cook struck out seven over four innings and Wolbrock struck out one in her lone inning.
