The dream season continues for the Douglas Lady Bulldogs who picked up their 20th straight win Saturday with a 12-2 six-inning mercy rule win over the Arcadia Titans in the first round of the 4A Division II state tournament.
 Bruce Whetten /Douglas Dispatch Douglas’ second baseman Amy Victoria steps on second base for the force out and then throws to first in an attempt to complete the double play in the Lady Bulldogs state playoff game with Arcadia Saturday at Douglas High School. Douglas won the game 12-2 in 6 innings. |
Erika Tapia, the 2009 Gila Region player of the year, was her usual dominant self Saturday giving up two runs off four hits while fanning eight and walking two in six innings in the pitchers circle. With the win Tapia improves to 25-1 on the season.
Lina Campbell’s aggressive running on a sacrifice squeeze gave Douglas a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first.
Veronica Tartaglia singled in the second and later scored when Victoria Mariscal hit a shot to the outfield that was misplayed allowing both runners to score. Jacque Hernandez later scored that inning as Douglas went up 4-0.
Arcadia scored one of its two runs in the top of the third averting the shutout.
The Lady Bulldogs tacked on two more runs in the third and one in the fourth increasing their lead to 7-1.
Arcadia would score its final run in the top of the sixth.
Knowing the win was in reach Douglas’ softball coach Abe Grijalva had his team go base to base in the bottom of the sixth.
With that being done the Lady Bulldogs still managed to push across five runs giving Douglas the 10-run mercy rule win.
Nythzia Machado and Tartaglia each hit 2 for 4 this game. Nikki Lopez was 1 for 2, Katie Campbell 1 for 3; Victoria Mariscal and Hernandez each were 1 for 2, Tapia 2 for 3, Jackie Gonzalez 3 for 4 and Any Victoria 1 for 1.
Coach Grijlava said after the win this was a good way to start the state playoffs.
“My job is to prepare them and get them ready for the game,” he said. “They just need to go out there, relax and let their natural athletic ability take over between the lines.”
The coach said good pitching, solid hitting and making the key plays on defense led to the opening round win.
“This is our 29th game and it’s always been like that,” he said. “The girls are playing very well together – this was a total team effort.”
The DHS softball field had a much different look to it as Randy Walker and the DUSD officials prepped the field for the softball playoffs.
An estimated 200 fans packed inside the park for the game giving the Lady Bulldogs a strong sense of community support.
“The people that came to the game saw how beautiful the field looked and that excited the girls,” he said. “Even the coach from Arcadia commented about how nice our facility was. … This is nice but the bottom line is when the game starts the girls have to respond and they did – this was a good win.”
Not far from the minds from the coaches, players and fans was the memory of former assistant coach David Ybarra.
“I know he was watching today,” the coach said. “All year long we have kept him in our thoughts and prayers. This is what he wanted and while we’re doing this for us we’re also doing it in memory of him.”
Earlier in the week the Lady Bulldogs thumped Sahuarita 11-1 in five innings in the final game of the Gila Regional tournament.
Tapia went all five innings, gave up one run off four hits, fanned eight and walked four.
Tapia hit 3 for 3 this game, Lina Campbell was 2 for 3, Lopez 2 for 2, Gonzalez, Tartaglia and Mariscal each were 1 for 3 with Mariscal hitting a home run in the fourth inning. Hernandez was 1 for 2 with a home run in the second and Machado 1 for 1.
Sahuarita would fall 12-2 to Mohave Saturday in state playoff action.
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