The West Valley softball team opened the new season at a glittering new Viking Field with a doubleheader sweep of Taft Saturday afternoon. West Valley (2-0) welcomed the large crowd by clubbing 21 hits and giving up only four on the day. The first game ever at Viking Field ended with a five-inning 9-1 Viking win. WVC took game two 8-0 in six innings.
The Vikings sent eleven batters to the plate in a six-run first inning. Abigail Desa poked a single through the 5-6 hole for the first hit ever at Viking Field. Two batters later, Maddie Grissom lifted a SAC fly that scored Emelia Araiza, who opened the bottom of the first with a walk. Allie Whitfield then ripped a ground-rule double over the left field fence that scored Grissom and Michelle Gonzales. Kassady Alcazar knocked in Whitfield with a double and then came home on a single from Dezmyre Cruz for a 5-0 Viking lead.
West Valley added two more runs in third. Bianca Ceja led off with a double and scored on Alaysia Clincy's left-field double. Clincy would score on an Araiza single to give the Vikings a 7-1 lead. Grissom made it 8-1 in the fourth when she scored on a single and a three-base Cougar error. Clincy closed out the scoring in the fifth inning after drawing a walk and scoring after back-to-back singles from Araiza and Desa.
Araiza finished 3-3, while Clincy and Grissom were both 2-2 with an RBI. Viking starter Shelby White picked up the win in the circle with a four-strikeout three-hitter.
West Valley had seven well-timed hits in game two. Sydney Heming led off the second with a single and scored on a Desa single. Gonzales then delivered a two-run triple to right that drove in Desa and Natalie Clevenger, who was plunked three batters earlier. Grissom singled in Gonzales and the Vikings were up 4-0.
Desa opened the fourth with a single, stole second and then came home on a Grissom double. Isabella Gallegos SAC-bunted in Gonzales, who had walked, and then Grissom came home on a SAC bunt from Heming. Grissom sent everone home an inning early with an inside the park homer than skidded down the first base line all the way to the right field fence.
Grissom finished 3-4 with two RBI, while Desa completed a solid opening day with a two-hit, two-run outing. America Maples kept the Cougars (0-2) hitless until an Emily Bagdanoff single in the fifth. Maples K'd five Cougars in her five innings of work to pick up the win before giving way to reliever Rhiannon Underhill, who got the save.
