Colusa County harvests win over Wheatland

It just goes to prove you have to play all seven innings.

The Colusa County Softball team found itself down 6-0 after half an inning Tuesday, but chipped away at the lead and emerged with a 9-8 victory over Wheatland at Brown/Jaconetti Field in Colusa.

Wheatland put up a six-pack of runs in the first inning with just one hit, taking advantage of some early Colusa wildness on the mound.

After going down in order in the first, Colusa got two of the runs back in the second. Katrina Lagrande singled to drive in Emiley Correa, who had also singled, and Lagrande later crossed the plate on an error.

Colusa added another run in the third. Laura Wells drew a two-out walk, and Correa tripled off the right-field fence, scoring Wells and making the score 6-3 at the end of three.

Mack VanFleet pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth, and Colusa pulled to within one with another pair of runs in the home half.

Lagrande and VanFleet both came around after reaching on errors, with Abby Cranford driving VanFleet home on a single. Noemi Padilla brought Lagrande home with a ground out.

Colusa grabbed some momentum with a quick fifth inning defensively.

Wheatland led off with a single, but catcher Correa threw behind the runner to Lagrande at first, who fired a strike to shortstop Cranford who tagged out the sliding runner. Kayla Cunha, who took the pitching rubber for the fifth, made short work of the next two Wheatland batters, setting them down with strikeouts.

Correa put the equalizer on the board in the bottom of the fifth, when a VanFleet single plated Correa, who had walked.

Almost as quickly as Colusa had tied the score, Wheatland regained the lead with a pair of runs in the sixth on two singles, a walk, an error and a sacrifice fly.

Kodi Gimblin laced a triple with one out in the sixth and Wells was hit by a pitch and stole second, putting Colusa runners on second and third. When Gimblin took an aggressive lead off third the Wheatland pitcher attempted to pick her off, but Gimblin broke for home on the throw and slid in with a successful steal. Wells took third on the throw to the plate. Correa followed with a bloop infield single that scored Wells, knotting the score once again, this time at 8-8.

Cunha struck out the side in the top of the seventh.

Shayla Maxey led off the bottom of the seventh with a sharp single to right that was misplayed by the right fielder, allowing Maxey to hustle all the way to third.

With Tori Burrious in the batter's box, the Wheatland pitcher threw one in the dirt for a wild pitch, with Maxey speeding across the plate without a play for the winning run.

Correa finished 3-for-3 with a triple and 2 RBIs, with Gimblin also smacking a three-bagger. Cranford, Lagrande, VanFleet and Padilla drove in runs.