Armstrong hurls Clark to win

Alia Armstrong did a lot of growing up in the pitcher’s circle Tuesday.

Clark’s freshman made her Southwest League pitching debut a winning one and gained a lot of confidence for future outings.

Armstrong allowed just three hits and worked out of jams in the sixth and seventh innings to guide the Chargers to a 2-1 win over visiting Spring Valley.

“She was very good today,” Clark coach Andrea Leavitt said. “I love that she gets ahead of hitters a lot. She doesn’t get down on herself, and she just came out firing at them.”

Armstrong struck out eight, including the final batter in each of the last two innings, each time stranding the potential tying run in scoring position.

And she made it look much easier than it was.

“I just went out and threw like I usually throw,” Armstrong said. “I didn’t even think about it. All I can do is go out and pitch like I know I can pitch.”

After Armstrong scored the go-ahead run on Julia Hagen’s groundout in the bottom of the fifth inning, she got Katie Campo to hit a fly ball to left field to start the sixth. The ball was misjudged and fell for a leadoff double.

Sara Stowers sacrificed Campo to third, bringing up reigning Southwest League player of the year Georgi DeLio.

Armstrong got DeLio to ground out weakly to short, keeping the runner at third. After a two-out walk, Armstrong fanned Ellie Endsley to end the Spring Valley threat.

In the seventh, Armstrong allowed a leadoff walk to Ashley Coate. Following a sacrifice bunt, she got a fly out to left and a strikeout to finish the game, stranding the potential tying run on second base.

“This was huge,” Armstrong said. “It shows us that it doesn’t matter if we have a lot of freshmen or seniors, we can come out and win ballgames if we just put our minds to it.”

Clark (5-5, 2-0), which has five freshmen and three sophomores on its roster, is off to a quick start in league play, sharing first place with Durango.

“It’s a very young team. Every day it’s a new challenge,” Leavitt said. “This just helps everyone. Now they know what they can do. Hopefully we can build from this.”

The Chargers managed only two hits against Coate — Katie Kelly’s single in the second and Armstrong’s single in the fifth — but scored a run in the first on a walk to Armstrong, two hit batsmen and Alex Hathy’s RBI fielder’s choice.

DeLio homered with two outs in the first inning for the only run for Spring Valley (4-6, 1-1).