Softball: Sterling strong at plate, in circle

STERLING – In its first game of the season, Sterling looked like it was in midseason form.

The Golden Warriors smacked six home runs, and Sienna Stingley struck out 14 in a one-hitter as Sterling defeated rival Dixon 11-0 in six innings in the season opener for both teams on the new turf at the Sterling diamond.

“We definitely expected the base hits, because we’ve been hitting hard in practice – but not like that. Wow, that was crazy. It’s so cool, just a nice home opener,” Stingley said. “We’ve just been working hard doing live hitting every single day at practice. I’ve been throwing to the girls, so they’ve seen my pitches and they really know how to pick up a pitcher and recognize pitches right away.”

Stingley was in control from the start for Sterling (1-0). She gave up an infield single to Bailey Tegeler to lead off the game, but then struck out eight of the next nine hitters to start a string of five straight 1-2-3 innings.

She struck out seven straight hitters from the first through the third innings, and had another string of six straight strikeouts from the fourth through the sixth. She did not walk a batter, and threw 59 of her 79 pitches for strikes.

“It goes back to that live hitting and pitching at practice, and me going up against my great hitters really helps make me hit my spots,” Stingley said. “So I’m very thankful that I have good hitters on this team, and I’m very proud of them.”

“I thought she did a real nice job keeping the ball down,” coach Donnie Dittmar said. “If they were going to get anything going, it would be grounders on the infield. But a lot of times, she wasn’t even letting them touch it. She did a real nice job in the circle tonight.”

Stingley got plenty of support from her offense. Ellie Leigh and Olivia Melcher led off the second and third innings with solo home runs, then Mya Lira ripped a two-run shot with nobody out in the fourth for a 4-0 lead.

Lauren Jacobs then led off the fifth with a homer, Marley Sechrest had a one-out RBI double, and Carley Sullivan followed with a two-run homer in a four-run fifth that blew the game open.

Stingley finished the game in the sixth with a walk-off three-run shot deep to center for the run-rule victory.

“I actually thought that they were a little anxious the first few at-bats; they were leaning out a little bit on their front foot and getting under the ball a little bit. Then I think they finally settled down, got into the groove of the game, and got the bats going,” Dittmar said. “We’ve got to work on getting a few more of those line-drive hits and get some rallies going, but we’ll always take the deep balls to put instant runs up. It was just a real nice job of the girls hitting tonight.”

Every Warrior in the starting lineup had at least one hit, and eight different players had an extra-base hit. Six Sterling players reached base at least twice, and eight different Warriors drove in runs in the offensive onslaught.

Still, Dixon coach Candi Rogers liked the way sophomore pitcher Allie Abell battled through in her first varsity start. She struck out three and walked six, and threw 62% of her pitches for strikes (72 out of 116) against an aggressive Sterling lineup.

“I feel like she stayed strong out there. When they hit six home runs on you, it’s hard to stay in it and come back, but she did,” Rogers said. “She stayed mentally strong and she kept on going. I’m proud of her for that.”

Even with six new varsity starters, the Duchesses (0-1) played cleanly in the field, committing just one error. But Rogers said the biggest thing she saw from her young team was a lack of aggressiveness at the plate, especially when the Dixon hitters were behind in the count.

“It’s a good experience to see a pitcher like [Stingley], but we’ve got to be more aggressive. We’ve talked about our two-strike approach, and we can’t strike out looking six times,” Rogers said. “We’ve just got to change our two-strike approach, and start getting some confidence at the plate.

“But it feels good to be out here and play a game. Seeing them out on the field is a lot different than what we see in practice, especially because we’ve been indoors the whole time; we’ve had one outdoor practice so far. It’s just nice to be out on the field.”