By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  The Blanchet Catholic softball team carried the momentum over from their doubleheader against Yamhill-Carlton Friday to their PacWest Conference game with Amity on Tuesday afternoon.

It was in their second game of their doubleheader against the Tigers in which the Cavailers took YC to extra innings, Blanchet jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead on the Warriors Tuesday by the fourth inning.  Seemingly in full control of the game going into the midway point of the game.

“It really showed us what we can do as a team if we just played together and put our best effort,” Blanchet’s Lexi Jensen said.

Jensen had a solo home run with two outs in the bottom half of the first inning, the lone run of the frame before the Cavs scored four and three runs over the next two innings to separate themselves from Amity.

Both were winless in league play entering the game.  Hungry to get into win column and in the fourth inning the Warriors crept up on Blanchet in a hurry as they caught the Cavaliers in a lull mentally.

Five runs later and their only scoreless inning later, Blanchet were reeling up only 8-5 going into the fifth inning.

“It was really important because we kept up our intensity and kept supporting each other.  We were able to battle back and get some runs on the board,” the Warriors Kylie Kendall said.  “We’ve been struggling  a little bit in the past few games.  We’ve improved on what we can do today and we’ll just keep working in our practices and improve on what we need to do.”

Angela Graham and Maddie Turley drove in runs in that five-run inning thanks to forcing errors for a run a piece.  Fawn Trejo drove in a runoff an RBI Triple and Kendall capped the rally with a two-run RBI double before Blanchet halted the run at five.

 “I think it was mental errors and they just compounded.  So we just had to get out of that inning and start fresh,” Jensen said.  “It feels good to get a league win and now we just got to keep working to get to playoffs and keep chipping away.”

And start fresh they did.  They rebuilt their lead with four runs in the bottom of the fifth before adding on three more to enforce the ten-run mercy rule thanks to a three-run double from Alana Jensen in the 15-5 win.

The Jensen sisters combined for 7RBI’s with Lexi having a game-high 4RBI’s.  Regan Rasmussen, Ariel Davila and Vanessa Cervantes each driving in 2RBI’s in the win, Blanchet’s first in league and snapping their three-game skid in the process.

Trejo struck out four in five-and-two-third innings pitching to go with her RBI at the plate with Amity heading to Scio for a doubleheader with the Loggers on Friday starting at 3pm.  Blanchet host Yamhill-Carlton on May 3 at 4:30pm.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald