Grizzlies unfazed by early deficit in softball win

Spring Valley’s softball team hadn’t trailed in the first inning in any of its first three games, so coach John Simmers was interested to see how the Grizzlies would react after they fell behind early to Bonanza on Thursday.

It didn’t take long for him to find out.

Spring Valley tied the game in the second inning and erupted for five runs in the fourth to nab an 11-3 victory over the host Bengals.

“They didn’t get down, which was good,” Simmers said. “They stayed with it and kept fighting back. They settled in and played our type of game.”

Georgi DeLio delivered the big blow in the fourth, a towering three-run homer, and finished 3-for-5. Jina Miyamoto was 4-for-5 with a double and a two-run triple in the second for the Grizzlies (3-1).

With the game tied at 3 in the top of the fourth, Spring Valley had the bases loaded when Martinece Robertson grounded to Madison Means at shortstop. Means threw home, but Ashley Coate beat the low throw, and when the ball got away from catcher Megan Rabe, Miyamoto also scored to put the Grizzlies up, 5-3.

DeLio then hit the next pitch from Bonanza’s Kayla Gatti over the left-field fence to give Spring Valley an 8-3 lead.

“It’s always a good feeling to get a hold of one,” DeLio said. “One big hit can always turn something around.”

The Grizzlies tacked on single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh as Bonanza (1-5) committed five of its nine errors.

“We started throwing the ball around and made mental mistakes we don’t normally make,” Bonanza coach Mark Nelson said. “We were chasing the play, which we don’t normally do.”

Caitlyn Lloyd went 3-for-3, and Rabe finished 2-for-3 for the Bengals.

Bonanza went ahead 3-1 in the first as Rabe had a run-scoring double and Ashlee McKenna singled in a run around Kayla Sylvester’s RBI groundout.

But the Bengals managed only five hits in the final six innings against Spring Valley freshman Michaela Hood, who escaped trouble in the sixth and seventh.

“She adjusted to us, and we didn’t make the adjustment back to her,” Nelson said. “She was moving the ball up and down, and we kept swinging at it.”

After back-to-back singles by Caitlyn Lloyd and Rabe to open the sixth, Lloyd was thrown out trying to steal third and the threat fizzled.

In the seventh, Bonanza again put runners on first and second with nobody out, but Hood got two strikeouts and a Tori Lind ground out to end the game.