Cowgirls blast Hawks - Central Oregonian

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Lon Austin

After a couple of “rough” outings, the Crook County Cowgirls put everything together on Tuesday.

The Cowgirls, who lost their first two games, blasted the visiting La Pine Hawks 17-1 Tuesday evening to earn their first win of the season.

“I told the team before the game that they needed to do all the little things right and the game will take care of itself,” said head coach Reggie Holcomb. “They executed well tonight.”

Crook County starting pitcher Loren Saenz was in control throughout the game, giving up just three hits while striking out five batters.

“The wind wasn’t too bad today,” Saenz said. “It didn’t come up that much when I?was pitching. I’ve got a good team to back me up so I know that if I can just pitch a strike and get the batter to hit it, the team will back me up with good defense.”

 The Cowgirls scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take control of the game. Using aggressive base running, Crook County added five runs in the second inning, and five more in the third.

La Pine scored their lone run in the top of the fourth inning. The Hawks took advantage of a pair of Crook County errors and a hit batter to score the run despite not getting a hit in the inning.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Holcomb called a time out.

“We went out and reminded them to take care of the little things,” he said.

After the time out, Saenz forced the next three batters to hit weak ground balls allowing the Cowgirls to get out of the jam while giving up just the one run.

The pair of errors were the only errors that the Cowgirls gave up the entire game.

Led by an inside the park home run by Jena Ovens, the Cowgirls scored three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, making sure that the game was out of reach.

“I didn’t think it was going to go that far,” Ovens said of her home run. “It was only a ground ball to third base, but it ended up rolling all the way to the fence. Our base running looked a lot better today than in our pervious games. We got our signs and slid pretty good. I thought we played a very good game.”

After forcing the first two La Pine hitters to ground out in the fifth inning, Saenz struck out the final batter she faced to end the game early on the 10-run mercy rule.

The Cowgirls pounded out 14 hits and stole 12 bases despite coming to the plate in just four innings.

Both Ovens and Kelsee Martin were 3-4 from the plate in the game and added three RBIs. Martin also blasted a double in the second inning.

Taylor Walker also hit a double and drove in three runs in the game, while Miranda Smith and Saenz also doubled.

“I thought we executed well today,” Walker said. “We did a good job of running the bases and reading our signs.”

Smith agreed that the Cowgirls played a strong game.

“I feel the team played really good,” she said. “It’s hard to stay up and be loud in games where you are so far ahead, but we stayed up and cheered on the team.”

Both Crook County and La Pine are now 1-2 on the season. The Cowgirls played Sisters on Thursday, then have a busy week ahead as they play four games next week. The team will play a pair of games against La Pine and LaSalle Prep Monday, during the first day of the Central Oregon Tournament at Summit High School. Game times are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. The team is back in action Tuesday in the final round of the tournament with their opponent and game time yet to be determined.

Then Wednesday the team goes on the road again when they take on Lebanon in a 1 p.m. matchup.

Tuesday, March 20

at Crook County

La Pine     0  0  0  1  0  —  1  3  6

Crook County   4  5  5  3  x  —  17  14  2

K. Parrish and Fisher, Stinchcomb (4): Saenz and Walker, Ovens (4). W — Saenz. L — K. Parrish. 2B — Crook County: Saenz, Walker, Martin, Smith. HR — Crook County: Ovens.