Carson High's Caydee Farnworth deals against McQueen Tuesday afternoon. Farnworth has 39 strikeouts over her last three games after eight strikeouts Tuesday.
Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage
Behind six runs in the first two innings and another impressive effort in the circle, Carson High softball sits at 6-2 overall after taking down McQueen 7-3 Tuesday afternoon.
The Senators didn’t need to worry too long after Kedre Luschar opened up the game on second base, following a dropped third strike.
A couple of wild pitches brought her around to score.
Kennedy Redican led off the second inning with a double that one-hopped the left-center field wall.
Kayce Johnston used an RBI single to bring in Redican before the Senators turned it over to the top of their order for three more runs.
Corine Doran was 2-for-3 Tuesday with two doubles, the second of which clanked off the center field wall and brought in both Luschar and Shannen von Duering.
Posting early runs against Makayla Webber was of upmost importance for Carson head coach Carlos Mendeguia.
“Great pitcher,” said Mendeguia of Webber. “I thought we rattled her by getting up early and hitting is contagious.”
Carson ended the afternoon with nine hits in the win.
Up the middle defense
Caydee Farnworth tossed eight strikeouts for the Senators, giving her 39 punchouts total over her last three outings.
A mix of pitches and attacking hitters in the zone allowed Farnworth to throw 76 strikes on 117 pitches.
With the shortened regular season halfway over, Farnworth said her focus this season has been in-between the ears.
“Really just my mindset with this year. A lot of coaches don’t really think I’m one of the top pitchers, so it just heart,” said Farnworth, “and wanting to prove them wrong that I can compete at this level.”
Farnworth started the game with three strikeouts of McQueen’s first three hitters, before picking up one more in the second and two K’s in the third.
“I think she’s hungry. When people talked about the top pitchers in the league, her name doesn’t get brought up very much,” said Mendeguia. “I think she’s got a huge chip on her shoulder.”
When she wasn’t punching out hitters at the plate, her defense was all over the place making plays.
The Senators dropped a couple balls in foul ground, but when the ball was in play, Carson was able to create outs.
McQueen’s first threat to score came in the second inning after a leadoff double allowed the Lancers to get a runner to third with one out.
Makayla Webber blooped a high fly ball to shallow left-center, but von Duering saved a run with a long running catch from her second base position just beyond the outfield grass behind short.
Von Duering’s catch kept McQueen’s runner on third and kept the Lancers off the scoreboard early.
Luschar and Farnworth teamed up for a double play to end the fourth after a bunt came right back to Carson’s pitcher in the circle.
Farnworth tossed it over to Luschar, who was covering third for the second out.
In the fifth, Luschar chased down a fly ball from short to make a diving catch in the grass of foul ground up the left field line.
“We talked about how we had to be on point on defense today,” said Mendeguia. “As I told our infield, I think we have one of the better infields in the north and they wanted to go out and prove it.”
