The Clark College Women’s Softball Team had a double-header on Saturday, May 3, against the Lower Columbia Community College Red Devils. It was a tough outing for the Penguins again versus the power hitting Red Devils. For the second weekend in a row the Red Devils dominated the Penguins, winning game one 8-0 and game two 11-0.

    In game one, Bailee Mayer was the starting pitcher. The Red Devils batted around in the first inning and came away with five runs. After her struggles in the first, Mayer pitched strong until the fourth inning when the Red Devils scored three more runs.

    “Bailee pitched really well today, but they’ve seen her four times this year so they knew what to expect,” Coach Kasey Powers said. “They are one of the best hitting teams in the league, so it’s tough.”

    In the bottom of the fourth, Lori Love led off with a base hit, but the Penguin bats couldn’t manage to get the run in.

    Clark threatened in the fifth with Kori Miller getting a lead-off base hit. Brooklyne Freeman hit a grounder to the second basemen who tagged out Miller, with Freeman ending up on first base. Freshmen Kristina Carbis came to the plate and hit a fly ball to right field. There was some confusion on the base path about if the Red Devil outfielder was going to make the catch, so Freeman only went halfway to second base. As the ball dropped in front of the outfielder, Carbis had run up behind Freeman. Carbis attempted to retreat back to first but was thrown out. During the play on Carbis, Freeman tried to score from second and was thrown out at home plate. This ended one of Clark’s best opportunities to score.

    With Lower Columbia ahead by more than eight runs in the fifth inning the game was called. The Red Devils won 8-0.

    Miller was the starting pitcher for game two. Lower Columbia struck first with three base hits and took an early 3-0 lead. In the third inning, the Red Devil bats heated up again with back-to-back doubles, a run scoring single, and a two-run double. They added two more base hits in the inning and that increased their lead to 9-0.

    After three innings of work, Miller was replaced by Catherine Martinez.

    “Kori pitched really well, but had one bad inning,” Powers said.

    Martinez looked good in her second game back from injury. However, she gave up two walks that came around to score on a two-run triple.

    Another Clark College scoring opportunity occurred in the fourth inning. Krista Kountz hit a drive to left field which she tried to stretch into a triple, but she was thrown out at third in a close play.

    Martinez shut the Red Devils down in the fifth inning and hoped that Clark could fight back. Lori Love led off with a walk and Miller then reached on an error. Kellie Preheim followed with a base hit, which loaded the bases for the Penguins with no outs. Unfortunately, that was followed up by two strikeouts and a ground out. Lower Columbia took game two 11-0.

    Mayer, who pitched game one, came away with a bad ankle and joins teammates Ashleigh Byrne and Natalie Deotsch with similar injuries.

    “I’ve got three girls with ankle injuries so they need to heal up—we only have six more games to play,” Powers said. “The girls will get Monday off but we will be working on fielding Wednesday and Thursday.”

    The last home games of the season are coming up. They play Friday, May 9, against SW Oregon Community College, starting at 3 p.m. The final home game is on Saturday, May 10,  against Clackamas Community College, starting at noon.