Barstow steals victory to sweep Taft

TAFT - The Barstow softball team needed some late inning heroics to win a pair of games on the road at Taft Saturday.

The Vikings Daisha Mitchell and Melissa Galindo pulled off a double steal in the top of the 7th inning to give Barstow an 8-7 lead. Galindo then closed the Cougars out in the bottom of the inning to secure the win. Barstow (5-5-1) won the opening game, 16-8.

The Vikings rushed out to a 7-1 lead in the second game as Lindsey Crane pitched the first four innings. Cheyenne Porcella and Mitchell scored a pair of runs each in the first two innings. Annemarie Hernandez, Inalyalena Paopao added a pair of RBI.

Taft rallied with five runs in the fifth inning and then tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning with a run. Galindo earned the win pitching 2.1 innings with four strikeouts in relief of Crane.

In the first game Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the first game, but Taft answered with five runs in the first. Barstow exploded for eight runs in the second inning and then added two more in the sixth and four in the seventh. Crane again started for the Vikings, and was relieved by Galindo in the fourth.

PaoPao had three hits and four RBI, while Alyna Garcia added a pair of hits. Alysia Sanchez had two hits and three RBI, while Lolo Donovan added two hits and two RBI. Alyssa Avalos scored three runs.

"We hit the ball well and that was really good to see," said coach Tim Syrek. "The second game we played with some pressure and the ladies handled it well. It was nice to see us run the bases with aggression."

Barstow dropped a 9-7 game on Thursday to LA Mission. The Vikings led 7-3 in the fourth inning, but had five costly errors in the fifth inning to allow LA Mission to grab the win.