By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.— Following their 13-3, five inning win over Molalla Thursday afternoon, Blanchet Catholic’s Ariel Davila was on the warning track doing some post-game running and cooling down from pitching yet another strong game.

The Cavalier senior struck out nine batters in five innings in the win while contributing two hits at the plate for the Blanchet squad in their third game of the season.  She’s eager to go and achieve the goals she set out for herself and her team this Spring.

“She has her foot on the gas.  Look at her now, she’s out there working.  She’s still working, nonstop working for her.  I think she’s going to be a good workhorse for us,” Cavs Head Coach Ron Regalado said.  “She’s going to be a special one, especially with it being her senior year.  She told me at the beginning of the season her goals and I think she wants to achieve them as quickly as she can.”

Davila laughed when asked about her performance, admitting that there was some rust pitching with the Cavalier having a nearly two-week break due to Spring Break.

“I felt like I could’ve done better at the end for sure,” laughed Davila.  “But at the beginning of the game it was pretty good.”

Molalla scored all three of their runs in the fourth and fifth innings thanks to a Ellie Wimmer ground-out for a run in the fourth inning and a 2RBI single by Codie Gump in the fifth inning. 

But by the point, Blanchet had a nice lead to brace for the run.  The Cavs led 8-0 leading into Wimmer’s RBI sac-hit in the fourth behind patience at the plate.  Blanchet, in the game total, had taken advantage of 13 walks and only had five hits in the win.

Davila had two, Regan Rassmussen had another two and Kelsey Tobias had the other that aided the Cavaliers to build their overall lead.

“It was super nice and just to see the girls go out there and have fun was super cool,” Rassmussen said.

“We’ve been working a lot on them in practice.  Finding your pitch that they like to drive while being aggressive though, especially on certain situations counts and stuff.  But always making sure we’re staying aggressive at the plate,” adds Regalado.

Those situational counts, situational situations in general will be something they’ll continue to work on moving forward points Regalado as Blanchet enters the bulk of their schedule now.

They’ll have a week off, but then it’s Harrisburg/Mohawk on April 5 before hosting Taft on April 8 and Santiam to close out the non-league slate on April 11.  PacWest Conference play start April 14 against Scio.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald