Merced’s Maddy Nickles hurls second no-hitter

Maddy Nickles has played a lot of high-level softball, including trying out and being selected for the Junior National Team in January.

The Merced junior still can’t help but get nervous before games.

Nickles fought through her nerves early and battled her way through the Pitman lineup, pitching her second no-hitter of the season as the Bears defeated the Pride 6-1 on Friday afternoon.

“I was kind of tense,” Nickles said. “I let a lot of things get in my head. My leg was bothering me. Then I tend to overthink things. I just had to tell myself to relax. I finally started relaxing later in the game.”

What should have been a feature matchup between two of the top pitchers in the Central California Conference with Nickles squaring off against Pitman’s Alexis Mettler turned into a sloppy affair with both teams combining for nine errors.

The Pride (7-3, 1-1 CCC) committed three errors in the third inning to help the Bears push across two runs.

It appeared Mettler was cruising through the inning after the first two batters were retired.

Then Merced’s sparkplug Rheanne Lewis beat out an infield single, advanced to second on a throwing error and moved to third on a wild pitch. After Katelynn Geitler walked, it still looked like Mettler was going to get out of the inning when Nickles hit a pop fly but the ball was dropped and Lewis scored.

Megan Kravec followed with a ground ball that was booted that allowed Geitler to score to give the Bears the 2-0 lead.

“We have two freshman infielders, so we had a couple coverage errors and fielding errors,” Pitman coach Joe Lewis said. “We’ve got to fix some things, but it’s still early.”

The Bears gave a run back to Pitman in the third as two walks started the inning. Merced catcher Megan Kravec faked a throw to second to get Pitman’s Holland Henson, but the ball slipped out of her hand, allowing both Henson and Lehua DeLeon to advance.

Kravec chased down the ball and called timeout as she walked to the mound. However, the umpire never granted her timeout and Henson raced home to score with nobody covering the plate.

“Neither of us played a great game,” said Merced coach Bart McAfee, whose team improved to 6-2 and 1-0. “That’s part of the game. I’m happy to get out of here with a win.”

Nickles was able to pitch around the four defensive miscues and her own three walks and one hit batter with the help of 10 ground-ball outs and seven strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Lewis continued to stoke the offense, collecting three hits and reaching base all four times.

“As a slap hitter, I’m really concentrating on the small game,” said Lewis, who scored twice. “I really feel it’s my job to start it off, to start rallies and get the girls going.”

Atwater 10, Turlock 2 (9 innings) in Turlock – Cheyenne Mahy struck out 14 hitters and the Falcons (6-1, 1-0 CCC) exploded for eight runs in the ninth inning. Gracie Santistevan had two hits and drove in four runs for Atwater.

Golden Valley 12, Buhach Colony 7 in Merced – Shyan Crutcher collected two hits, including a three-run homer as the Cougars (6-3, 1-1 CCC) scored six runs in the second and fourth innings to outslug the Thunder.

Dyonne Vargas hit a two-run homer for the Thunder (0-6, 0-2).

This story was originally published March 13, 2015 at 8:50 PM with the headline "Merced’s Maddy Nickles hurls second no-hitter."