It’s frustrating to lose. As any Artesia sports fan will attest, it’s more frustrating still to lose to Carlsbad.
To send the needle even further to the right on the Lady Bulldog softball team’s frustration scale, Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to Class 6A Carlsbad will mark their only shot at the Cavegirls this season; the teams’ scheduled meeting April 3 at The Mack was cancelled due to an excess of games on Artesia’s slate.
But while Tuesday’s outcome will no doubt leave a bad taste lingering in the mouths of the Lady ‘Dogs over the course of their 10-day layoff, there were positives to be taken away from the loss.
For one, senior pitcher Kali Crandall threw a solid game overall. Carlsbad got theirs in the hitting department, logging nine, but Crandall gave up just three earned runs over her six innings of work, striking out seven and walking none.
“Kali did really well,” head coach Sandra Pulido said today. “We expected them to hit; it’s a given, it’s Carlsbad. But she threw a good game, and the ball just fell for them yesterday and not so much for us.
“Defensively, we felt like we did some good things, too. It just didn’t fall in our favor, and it’s difficult when you fall behind early and have to dig yourself out of holes. Late in the game, we started to get a rally put together, but it was unfortunately too late for that.”
The girls in orange committed just a single defensive error on the day, but it proved to be costly, giving Carlsbad an unearned run and extending the bottom of the first, in which the Cavegirls did the bulk of their damage.
A leadoff single by Marissa Reyes was followed by the errant throw, which put two runners on with no outs for Gabby Aragon, who tripled both in. Aragon then crossed on a Hayven Burkeen double to give Carlsbad a 3-0 leg up.
It took the Lady Bulldogs a while to find their rhythm at the plate against Cavegirl sophomore Brianna Santo. Artesia went down in order in their first two trips before Stacia Martinez busted up the no-hitter in the top of the third with a single to left. She was stranded, however, as were Crandall and Adrianna Baeza – on with a base hit and as a hit batsman – in the fourth, and the Lady ‘Dogs went three up, three down again in the fifth.
“The first few innings, we weren’t hitting the ball,” said Pulido. “We were striking out and popping up, just going back to old habits that don’t help us.
“Pitch selection was something else we struggled with. At the beginning of the season, we were doing a really good job of laying off of anything above our hands, but we’ve progressively gone back to those things that need to be worked on.”
Carlsbad, meanwhile, tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth on another Burkeen single.
It wasn’t until the top of the seventh that the Lady Bulldogs put together a solid inning at the plate, but with one in, two on, and one away, it looked as though they might have a chance to threaten.
Catcher Melody Payne reached on an error to open the at-bat, and Kacey Thurman followed with a bunt single. Payne was thrown out at third attempting to take two bases on the play, but Thurman advanced to second on the throw.
Thurman went on to take third on a passed ball and was driven in by a Martinez double. A Chanler Groves single to the left side gave Artesia two baserunners with one away, but a ground out and a strikeout ended the game.
Martinez and Crandall both finished 2-3 at the plate on the evening, the former with a double and one RBI.
Santo took the W in the circle for the Cavegirls with six hits, one earned run, and five strikeouts through seven.
“You’re going to have games where it just doesn’t go your way, and that’s kind of what happened to us yesterday,” said Pulido.
With the loss, the Class 5A top-ranked Lady Bulldogs drop to 6-2 on the season but will have 10 days to work on what ailed them Tuesday as they prepare for the March 30-31 Lady ‘Dog Invitational.
“We’re just going to work on new habits and getting the fundamentals back where we need them to be,” Pulido said. “Pitch selection, what we want to do when we get runners on, moving people over – we’re just going to get back to the basics and doing our jobs.”
