Carson hanging tough

Morgan Kleine admitted she was nervous. It certainly didn't show in her performance.

Kleine, who usually bats last when she's in the starting lineup, went 2-for-4 and ignited two big rallies from the leadoff spot in the Senators' 7-2 win over Bishop Manogue on Wednesday afternoon at Carson High School.

The teams made it to the fourth inning of the second game before the umpires suspended the game with Manogue leading 4-3 entering the bottom of the fourth. The teams will finish up the suspended game at 3 p.m. today and then play the final game of the series after the completion of the suspended game.

Carson and Manogue are both 10-6 with five games left in the regular season. Fallon is 10-5 and Galena is 7-8. The aforementioned four teams are battling for the final two playoff spots.

Kleine, who struck out in her first at-bat against Miners' ace Megan Dortch, singled to open the third. She moved to second when Emily Collins walked. Both runners scored on Jocelyn Young's double to left, tying the game at two. Young moved to third on Megan Hein's infield out and scored on a single by Moriah Lane to make it 3-2. The Senators loaded the bases, but Marissa Lucido grounded to short to end the threat.

That was enough to make a winning pitcher out of Carson starter Lindsay Ashbaugh, who struck out four and walked two. Manogue pushed across two runs in the first inning off Ashbaugh, who then shut the Miners down the rest of the way. She allowed only four hits after the first inning.

Carson added two more runs in the fourth, and again Kleine started the uprising. This time she beat out a well-placed bunt for a single. She advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Collins and scored on Young's second double of the day for a 4-2 lead. Lane followed with another run-scoring hit for a 5-2 lead.

Carson stretched its lead to 7-2 in the sixth thanks to run-scoring hits by Lane and Lisa Yamamoto.

Young and Lane led the offense with three hits apiece, while Kleine and Yamamoto added two each.

"I was nervous; excited nervous," Kleine said. "I felt good. I was starting to take control of the situation and stuff like that. I was doing my best to get on ahead of the better batters behind me."

Kleine's performance certainly impressed Carson coach Scott Vickrey.

Her speed at the top gives Carson a deep and talented lineup offensively.

"She had a great day in the field," Vickrey said. "Defensively she's solid. She has lots of speed. We've had her ninth, but because we've been leaving so many runners on, I moved her to leadoff. When she puts the ball on the ground, she puts pressure on the defense.

"We needed Jojo (Young) to step up and she did. She and Moriah had big days."

With senior Daria Leid sidelined the past four games with a back injury, Ashbaugh has stepped up in the circle with some big-time performances.

"Every single hit they got (in the first) was off my turnover, so I stopped throwing it," Ashbaugh said of her shutout performance over the last six innings. "It (pitching) feels more natural. It's coming back (to me). I feel more comfortable out there."

Ashbaugh did come close to getting yanked a couple of times in the first three innings, but she settled down and proved quite tough.

In the second game, Christina Gallegos got off to a rough start. She was hit by a line drive in the shoulder which Lane caught on a ricochet for the first out of the game. She walked the next two hitters before Cara McCarty delivered a two-run single. Carson then got out of the inning.

Gallegos departed with one out in the third, but not before a little controversy.

With one out, Kayla Batista hit a short pop-up down the first base line. Hein, the Senators' catcher, lunged for the ball and appeared to miss it. Plate umpire Gary Nichols called a foul ball, which means nothing else can happen. Base umpire George Ritter, according to Vickrey said that the ball went off Hein's glove in fair territory. Batista reached second on the play.

"He (Ritter) said it was a fair ball; that our player touched it, at least that's what I got from him," Vickrey said. "Our players stopped playing when they heard foul ball."

McCarty followed with a single and Gallegos was lifted in favor of Natalie Morrow, who allowed two hits before retiring the side. When the smoke cleared, the Miners had a 4-0 lead.

But as they did in the first game, the Senators stormed back with three runs in the third.

Collins walked and Lane was safe on an error. Hein followed with a run-scoring single to make it 4-1. Leid, who received clearance to play right before the start of the first game, singled to load the bases. Lauren Knorzer forced Lane at the plate for the second out, but Morrow delivered a two-run single to make it 4-3.

Morrow, in swirling wind and snow, held the Miners scoreless in the top of the fourth. The umpires waved both teams off the field, and after a short delay declared it a suspended game.