Maddy Nickles fires third no-hitter as Merced beats Golden Valley

Another day, another no-hitter for Maddy Nickles.

The Merced High School star is making difficult performance look routine as she struck out 11 Golden Valley hitters and walked two in the Bears’ 10-0 win Wednesday at Joe Herb Park. The game ended after six innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.

Nickles said she’s unaware when she has a no-hitter on the line during games.

“People tell me after and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cool,’” Nickles said.

The way she’s been pitching this season, she usually seems to have one going. She has three no-hitters in her six starts, including her last two games.

Nickles made an adjustment in her mechanics after working with her pitching coach earlier this week and it resulted in more velocity Wednesday.

“I really worked on driving off more instead of just going through the motions,” Nickles said. “I’m going for more movement and speed.”

Offensively, the Bears (7-2, 2-0 Central California Conference) pounded out 12 hits, including four from Rheanne Lewis and three by Mo Collins.

Merced turned two GV errors into a three-run first inning. Instead of a possible double play early in the inning, an errant throw helped Lewis score from first and Katelynn Gietler advance to third with no outs.

Megan Kravec followed with an RBI single and Shelbee Ward eventually came around to score when Collins’ double was mishandled in the outfield to give the Bears a 3-0 lead.

The Cougars (7-4, 1-2) committed five errors.

“Every time they made a mistake, we got the big hit to score a run,” Merced coach Bart McAfee said. “That’s the game. The team that usually makes the least mistakes wins. It’s that way in Little League, it’s that way in high school, and it’s that way in Major League Baseball.”

Nickles put the game out of reach when she laced a liner off GV starter Christiane Grijalva to right field that rolled to the fence for a grand slam that extended the Bears’ lead to 7-0.

The Bears extended a couple streaks with the win as they now have won 28 consecutive CCC games and have beaten Golden Valley 15 games in a row. Merced has outscored the Cougars 195-31 in those contests.

“It’s one of those things where we have to find a way to play a good game against Merced,” Golden Valley coach Ross Cruickshanks said. “If we can do that, it could put us over the top. First we have to believe.”

Atwater 4, Buhach Colony 3 in Atwater – Brittany Massa and Eileen Martinez each singled in runs during a three-run fifth inning as the Falcons held off the Thunder.

Gracie Santistevan picked up the win and went 2 for 2 with a double and RBI for the Falcons (7-2, 2-0 CCC).

Jennifer Moreno and Dyonne Vargas each had two hits for the Thunder (0-3).

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Maddy Nickles fires third no-hitter as Merced beats Golden Valley."