Rains dampen Maxwell Tournament

Rain cut short the baseball and softball tournaments at Maxwell High on Saturday, but before the weather interfered several local teams showed off high-octane offenses.

The tournament began Thursday with Pierce beating Williams 11-3 and Colusa picking up a 20-2 victory against Williams. Friday saw the host Panthers pull off a 13-1 win against Modoc on the softball diamond and a 14-6 triumph against the Braves on the baseball diamond.

On Saturday, the cloud cover turned sinister and halted the tournament in the third inning of the first games of the day.

Maxwell Softball Tournament

Maxwell 13, Modoc 1

Maxwell shortstop Jessie Otterson ranged to her right and robbed Modoc's Lydia Vass of a base hit to lead off the top of the first inning Friday and the Panthers never looked back, winning 13-1.

After a 1-2-3 top of the first, the Panthers took advantage of three consecutive walks to lead of the bottom half of the inning. Senior catcher Andi Robledo scored the first run on a wild pitch by sliding just under the tag at home plate and Jenna Powell and Allison Costa followed with RBI singles for a 3-0 lead after one inning.

Costa allowed five hits during the next two innings but allowed just one run with the help of strong defense by her teammates.

"I was just really trying to use my movement today because against not as good teams they won't swing at them but that was a hitting team so they swung at my pitches," Costa said.

The Panthers tacked on one run in the second inning on a triple to the wall by Ashley Azevedo which scored Robledo easily from second base.

Sophomore left fielder Brittney Haywood added two more runs in the bottom of the third with a home run well over the wall in straight-away center field which scored Shelen Boyes and gave the Panthers a 6-0 lead.

Haywood didn't see much playing time last season as a freshman but spent her summer playing softball on several teams.

"I think this is the best year we've had for a while. I'm only a sophomore but I think we're better than we were last year," Haywood said.

Maxwell (9-0, 2-0) used a six-hit barrage, a walk and two errors in the bottom of the fourth to score seven runs and Costa shut the Braves out in the final two innings for the 13-1, five-inning victory.

Powell went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Boyes hit 2-for-3 with two runs and Haywood added two hits and four RBIs. Leadoff hitter Robledo went 1-for-1, reached base in her three other plate appearances on walks, scored three runs and stole two bases.

The only Panther without a hit was Alexz Miller who reached base three times, twice on walks and once on an error. Miller stole two bases and scored two runs.

Costa allowed one run on five hits in five innings and finished the game with five strikeouts and one walk.

Telese Dowdy drove in the Braves only run of the game with a double in the third inning to score Courtney Knoch who singled. The loss dropped Modoc's record to 6-2 overall.

Pierce 11, Williams 3

Pierce opened the tournament against Williams on Thursday with an 11-3 seven-inning victory. The Bears scored four runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth inning to upend the Yellowjackets.

Pierce (3-3, 1-1) collected 14 hits, including three each by Celeste Lopez and Sierra Schloesser. Angel Clark drove in three runs on two hits, Nikki Herrera doubled and scored twice, and Hilary Brainard added two runs and two RBIs.

Aloysa Anderson allowed three runs in seven innings to pick up the victory. Anderson struck out four and prevented the Yellowjackets (1-5) from taking advantage of eight hits and seven walks.

Maxwell Baseball Tournament

Maxwell 14, Modoc 6

The Panthers fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first inning but wasted little time taking a 10-3 lead.

The first seven Maxwell batters reached base in the bottom of the first inning and five runs crossed the plate, led by RBI doubles off the bats of Blake Vierra and Russell Jones.

Five more runs crossed the plate in the second inning as the Panthers sent nine hitters to the plate. Riley deWit did the most damage in the inning with a two-run double.

The Modoc offense scored twice in the top of the third inning by cashing in on two hits, two hit batters and a walk but the Panther offense wasn't done.

Vierra walked in the bottom half of the inning and senior outfielder Steven Powell drove him in with his third RBI single of the game. Powell finished the game with four hits and three RBIs.

"We saw (Patrick Danley) had a little knuckleball at first and we had a little trouble at the beginning of the game but after a while we got used to it and banged off him pretty good," Powell said.

Second baseman Bryce Perry double and scored in the bottom of the fifth to bring the lead to 12-5. David Lee led off the bottom of the sixth with a stand-up triple and scored on Jones' second run-scoring double of the game.

Maxwell used three pitchers in the game. Sophomore Trent Mathis started the game and went 2 1/3 innings before giving way to freshman Scott Wells. Wells struck out six in 3 2/3 innings while allowing one run on three hits. DeWit closed out the game by striking out two in the seventh inning.

Maxwell improved to 7-1 during the team's quest to remain among the Northern Section Division V elite after losing several key players to graduation after an undefeated run last season.

"We knew that me, (Brett Cabral) and (Chad Otterson), the seniors, had to take over now. We needed to lead a lot better because some of those guys were pretty good leaders so we have big shoes to fill," Powell said.

Cabral went 2-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored and the Panthers collected 16 hits in the game.

Colusa 20, Williams 2

The RedHawks connected for 16 hits and made Williams pay for seven errors en route to a 20-2 victory Thursday to open the tournament.

Cyrus Yerxa led the Colusa offense by going 4-for-4 at the plate with three RBIs and a double. Shawn Friel, Joe Ferrini, Conner Herrick and Luke Corriea each doubled and had two hits. Tyler Martin added two hits, including a triple.

Herrick took the mound for the RedHawks and allowed two runs on three hits while striking out six as Colusa picked up its fifth win in a row.

CONTACT Kirk Barron at 458-2121or kbarron@tcnpress.com.