Turlock softball snaps Merced’s 30-game CCC winning streak

Sophie Mayol hit a sacrifice fly to drive in her older sister Maddy Mayol in the top of the eighth inning to propel the Turlock High softball team to a 4-3 win over Merced on Wednesday afternoon at Merced High.

The win snapped the Bears (9-3, 4-1 Central California Conference) 30-game conference winning streak.

Mariah Gonzalez went the distance for Turlock (3-2 CCC), giving up just six hits. Faith Pattee hit a two-run homer for the Bulldogs.

“(Gonzalez) pitched a good game,” Merced coach Bart McAfee said. “We haven’t been swinging the bats well the last couple (of) games. We only had three hits the other day and (six) today, but we’ve been facing good pitching.”

Madilyn Nickles had a pair of hits and Shelbee Ward doubled in a run to help give the Bears a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

Nickles struck out 16 hitters for the second straight game.

Golden Valley 3, Atwater 2 in Merced – Lexi Maghoney tripled in the sixth to drive in Jessica Baker with the go-ahead run and the Cougars (8-5, 2-3 CCC) held on to upset the Falcons (3-2).

Christiane Grijalva pitched a two-hitter for the Cougars.

“It was a huge win because we lost three in a row before this,” GV coach Ross Cruickshanks said. “It’s a huge confidence builder for us.”

Baseball

Los Banos 2, El Capitan 1 in Los Banos – The Tigers’ Josh Gould struck out 11 and gave up just two hits in a complete-game victory.

Sai Davuluri struck out 13 hitters and only gave up four hits for El Capitan (5-5, 2-1 Western Athletic Conference).

Pitman 8, Merced 3 in Merced – Colton Evans drove in three runs and Zach Wichman went the distance for the Pride (8-2, 3-0 CCC).

Le Grand 11, Waterford 10 in Le Grand – The Bulldogs rallied for three runs in the seventh inning to win a slugfest. Carlos Iniguez and Beto Marquez drove in two runs each for Le Grand.

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Turlock softball snaps Merced’s 30-game CCC winning streak."