Softball: Campo Verde grand slam keys 6-3 win over Highland
March 5, 2018 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365
Campo Verde's Myka Sutherlin warms up prior to tossing a 14-strikeout game vs. Highland. (AzPreps365 photo)
Campo Verde didn't do much offensively Monday night unless the bases were loaded. The bases were full twice. Six runs were the result from two hitters.
Catcher Brandi Wilson blasted a grand slam and battery mate Myke Sutherlin fanned 14 batters in a complete-game effort helping Campo Verde to a 6-3 victory over Highland in a interconference softball game at Campo Verde. Jaydn Warren's two-run single in the fifth was the other sacks-juiced, run producer.
The win evened Campo Verde'w record for the season at 4-4.The Coyotes are 2-0 in power-ranking games with Sutherlin (4-1) earning the win in both of those contests. Sutherlin struck out 15 in a 1-0 win over Gilbert and also hurled a shutout vs. Skyline in a tournament game. She fanned 11 in that game. Highland is 6-4, 2-2 in power-ranking games.
Wilson fouled off a couple of 3-2 pitches from Highland freshman Morgan Schmidt with the bases full and no outs in the bottom of the first. One of the pitches she fouled off off was an off-speed pitch that had Wilson out in front. All her fouls balls in the at-bat were pulled to left. Sure enough, her home run was a low line drive down the left-field line. Schmidt pitched well for the most part after that yielding the two runs in the sixth that Highland's scorebook ruled an error rather than a two-run single.
Sutherlin, who has done the bulk of the pitching in her fourth year on Campo's varsity, struck out the first four battlers of the game and seven of the first nine outs. She pitched out of a first-and-third, no-out jam in the sixth allowing just one run after her teammates improved the lead from 4-2 to 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth on Warren's sharp grounder to the right side that skipped off/under second baseman Adisen Webster's glove.
Webster was the first batter to make contact off Sutherlin as she batted in the second inning. Webster got Highland on the board with an opposite field home run to right field. Highland's Jocelynn LaFlesch made it 4-2 in the top of the third with an RBI single making Sutherlin pay for a hit-by-pitch that put leadoff hitter Kilee Fehd on. Megan McCamman knocked in Highland's final run in the sixth with a ground out after the LaFlesch and Makenzie Cox reached on bloop hits.
Campo Verde, which gave up 45 runs in a pair of tournament games to begin the season with Sutherlin out sick, plays two more games this week prior to spring break. The Coyotes have two road games -- Wednesday at region foe Vista Grande and Thursday at Paradise Valley. Highland hosts Basha on Tuesday and travels to Mesa Mountain View on Thursday.