Valley’s Jones makes first inning hold up

Nick Christensen

Thursday, April 7, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

Valley coach Leslie Samson knows her Vikings softball team was lucky to escape Desert Pines with a win. But she'll take it.

The Vikings scored three first-inning runs off Jaguars pitcher Kristina Brooks in their 4-2 win to open up league play Wednesday.

Of course, that was before Brooks settled down and struck out 13 Valley batters to finish with an overall great game herself.

But it's a league win, and it brought Valley to 4-4 -- "4-8 if we include that dreadful tournament," as Samson said of the Fred Davidson Memorial Tournament -- and her pitcher, Christina Jones, is starting to come around herself.

"Our pitcher had a one-hitter," Samson said. "She had eight walks, but she still had a one-hitter so that was a plus, with six strikeouts."

Jones also went 2-for-3 with an RBI double in that first inning.

Samson said the Vikings have been dealing with adjustments through the preseason.

"They've generally been pretty low-scoring games," she said. "We've been missing a few players, we've had to bring up some JV players who didn't adjust. That happens."

Valley continues league play today when the Vikings play host Rancho at 3:30 p.m.

Once Around Town

His Foothill team has been error-prone during the past three games, so much that Mayes said that he thinks "we've gotten all the errors out of us."

First, there was the "slew" of errors in an 11-1, five-inning loss to Sierra Vista. Then there were five first-inning errors against Cimarron-Memorial, followed by two errors in the bottom of the ninth inning in a heartbreaking loss to Shadow Ridge.

"Hopefully we've gotten them all out," Mayes said. "The girls are excited, they're ready to start conference play. Today I said, 'Hey, the season starts now. State playoff time is right now.' "

And almost as important is today's game against Green Valley. Foothill has never beaten Green Valley in softball.

"Hopefully we can knock off the Gators for the first time in school history," he said. "Earlier in the year we knocked off Las Vegas, and that was a first. We're hoping for a few more firsts."

"We're pitching her a lot more these last few games," coach Andrea Leavitt said. "I would like to rely on her, but if she's hurt, she's hurt."

Freshman pitcher Jordyn McDonald took the circle when Pierce was out with a torn muscle in her arm.

Offensively, Clark's sound, with four players hitting over .300. Missy Davenport is hitting .423 and Felicia Luna is batting .440.

But something's missing inside, Leavitt said.

"Mostly I just want them to be more focused and have more killer instinct," she said. "We have good defense and good offense. We just need that killer instinct."

Clark begins league play today at Bonanza.