By Caleb Knudsen
The Healdsburg softball team had a series of blowout wins against opponents earlier in the season, until it went to Sonoma Valley and encountered a fired-up Lady Dragons team. Often a league contender themselves, the Dragons had been on an unlucky streak until Healdsburg came to town.
Sonoma Valley was ahead at the end of every inning, but the game only reached the 10-run margin when the host team put an additional two runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth. The 16-6 final result put Healdsburg on the other side of a “laugher” score—they themselves had downed Justin-Siena 17-4 on March 3 and Credo 19-4 on March 6.
So perhaps the game was just a karmic kickback, an “evening of the score.” And it left no lasting mark on the Greyhound girls: They rebounded from the loss, and the spring break layoff, to return to form with a close game against St. Vincent de Paul and a bigger win over Kelseyville last Saturday.
Coach Brian Osborn pointed out the good news in the 5-3 loss to St. Vincent. “It was a good game and we had bases loaded in the 7th but just couldn’t get the big hit we needed,” he told the Tribune.
A few days later they were back on track. “We beat Kelseyville with a solid mix of good hitting, good baserunning, good defense and good pitching—the perfect recipe for victories,” Osborn said.
He noted that a couple of the players had multiple-hit games, including Izzy Osborn and Celia Vallotton, and a lot of players stepped up to contribute, including Sammy White, Ashley Jenkins and Hannah Sellards.
“We did not strike out once at the plate on Saturday,” he added.
Notable, too, is that despite the shellacking in Sonoma, it’s always been freshman Mia Halvorsen on the mound. Against Kelseyville she scattered four hits to give up only a single earned run, while striking out eight. The final score was 10-2.
The Lady Greys have a cumulative record of 5-2, and a 0-1 league record marred by the 5-3 loss to St. Vincent. From here on it’s largely Redwood league competition, including April 1 at Piner and April 2 at home against Santa Rosa.
