Kaitlyn Jimmy
RENO — If you’re a silver lining sort of person, the only thing to take away from Wednesday’s loss was the pitching performance of Kaitlyn Jimmy.
Jimmy, who is headed to Western Nevada College, threw five shutout innings in the Carson High softball team’s disappointing 12-4 loss to the Wooster Colts.
The loss dropped CHS to 2-2 in league play. The Senators return to action April 1 against Damonte Ranch. The Senators were originally scheduled to play Damonte today, but the Mustangs are headed to Idaho for a weekend tournament and requested extra travel time.
Jimmy entered the game with nobody out in the second inning and the Senators already down 12-0. She allowed four hits over the next five innings while striking out two. It was clearly her best effort of the season.
“I went with her (Jimmy) because we had no other options,” CHS coach Shelby Tuttle said. “I hadn’t seen that kind of effort all year, and I told her that. I need to see that consistency. She did a great job. I thought we were down to two pitchers. Maybe not.”
Tuttle admitted that his team would be a lot stronger defensively if Jimmy could carry the lion’s share of the pitching assignments.
This one was over in the first inning when Wooster exploded for 11 runs and seven hits off Jen Purcell and Becka Breuer. The Colts sent 15 hitters to the plate. Two runs scored on wild pitches and Maddie Marable drove in three runs in the inning with a double and single.
It was a complete turnaround from Tuesday when Purcell tossed a 1-hitter against the Colts in a 10-0 win. She yielded five runs on four hits in 1/3 of an inning in two different stints in the circle. Breuer gave up seven runs, three earned, in 2/3 of an inning.
“I started the same pitcher today (Purcell) that I started Tuesday when she gave up one hit,” Tuttle said. “They made an adjustment. I brought in Becka and that didn’t change anything. We 10-runned them, and I’m sure the girls felt like they could do it again. Wooster is a better team than they (Carson girls) thought.”
Carson’s offense was non existent against Charyse Bailey, who kept the Senators at bay by constantly changing speeds. She struck out four, gave up five hits and just two earned runs.
“We saw a lot of those type of pitchers last weekend (in Redding), and we made adjustments,” Tuttle said. “Today we didn’t make an adjustment.”
Bailey faced the minimum 12 hitters over the first four innings, allowing no hits and one walk.
The Senators finally broke through for their first hit and all of their runs in the fifth.
Jimmy’s single to deep center drove in a run and also broke up the no-no. Jimmy reached second when the centerfielder bobbled the ball. After Michelle Perry beat out a bunt, Malia Tiffer drove home a run with a single through the left side of the infield. The final run of the inning scored on Skye Simpson’s sacrifice fly to short center.
In the seventh, Perry was hit by a pitch, moved to second on Tiffer’s infield out and scored on Simpson’s single.
Carson now has six days before its next games, and Tuttle said the next couple of practices will revolve around hitting. Because their pitching isn’t dominating, the Senators can’t afford to have any off days at the plate like they had against Bailey.