Panthers Softball Grinds Out Difficult Loss to Walnut, 2-0

The softball team dropped its fifth consecutive contest Wednesday afternoon as the visiting Walnut Mustangs shut out the Panthers 2-0 behind Mustangs pitcher Kiarra Vance’s lead.

The loss is the second of the season to Walnut, who defeated the Panthers 6-4 in an earlier matchup.

Despite giving up the only two runs of the game in the second and third innings, Diamond Ranch’s starter Ariana Smith had a strong outing, letting the Mustangs by with only three hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

“Our pitcher Ariana (Smith) pitched a great game for us,” Diamond Ranch coach Rick Alcantar said. “If this was any other game, she could have won it.”

Two defensive errors by the Panthers also contributed to the Mustangs' two-run victory.

After setting down the Mustangs in order in the first inning, Walnut (9-7 overall, 2-4 league) struck in the second inning for its first run.

After Sage Aguilar sent a fly ball to right field, Mariah Gurule would walk and get to second on a sacrifice play. Gurule would later score on Alexis Raisola’s RBI single. 

Walnut scored once more in the third inning, but Smith held the Mustangs scoreless the remaining four innings to give Diamond Ranch a chance on offense.

Diamond Ranch was able to get five hits off of Vance, with the Panthers Taylor Smith going two for two at the plate. Kori Tinnin and Francyne Fortaleza were each one for two, and Christina Rodriguez was one for three.

“We couldn’t string any hits together,” Alcantar said. “We were very inconsistent in our hits, and we couldn’t put any pressure on them.”

Diamond Ranch’s (5-10 overall, 1-6 league) best scoring opportunity came in the fourth inning when they had Vance in a two on, two out situation. After two groundouts, Deeana Matlock would walk. 

Taylor hit a sharp single to have runners on first and second. Diamond Ranch, however would not be able to cash in the runs as Alana Orana would bounce out to end the inning.

With no playoff hopes this year, Alcantar says that the team will just look to play each game as it comes.

“Our goal this year is to better our win total (of nine wins) of last year,” he said. “But to do that, we will have to win three of our last four games.”

Diamond Ranch next travels to Rowland Friday afternoon. The Panthers already defeated the Raiders once this season 5-3. First pitch is at 3:30 p.m.

BOX SCORE

School Name

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

R

H

E

Walnut

0

1

1

0

0

0

0

2

3

0

Diamond Ranch

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

5

2