It took two superb performances from their starting pictures, but the Park University Gilbert softball team won both games of Wednesday's doubleheader against Simpson by scores of 5-1 and 2-0.
Like yesterday, Kylee Saunders got the start in game one and had a masterful outing. The sophomore pitcher threw a complete game and gave up just four hits, one earned run and a walk. She also struck out three en route to picking up her second win of the season.
Unlike yesterday, the Buccaneers were the ones benefiting from defensive mishaps. The Redhawks committed a whopping four errors in the third inning alone, which led to three unearned Buccaneers runs.
Destinee Alvarez led off with a single and second and third base on back-to-back errors; she scored when Danae Villarreal singled to left field and got the Buccaneers on the board. Tayler Gallegos, who reached base on the error that advanced Alvarez to second, benefitted from another error when she came home on a wild throw before Villarreal came home on yet another Redhawks error.
Alvarez and Villarreal both went 2-4 in game one, while the latter added two RBIs.
Shaylah Dominguez and Dinicola tacked on two more insurance runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but it was more than enough thanks to Saunders's performance.
To top Saunders's one-hit performance was a tall task, but one that Gabby Vallee was up to. The Bucs' ace started game two and threw a complete game herself and shutout the Redhawks. In the process, she struck out five, walked zero batters and scattered eight hits.
To put into perspective how impressive it was for Saunders and Vallee to manage the Redhawks' offense the way they did: The Redhawks played 37 games this season and were held to two runs or fewer just 11 times; Saunders is responsible for two of those games and Vallee's shutout makes for a third occassion.
Moreover, Vallee's shutout marked just the third time in 38 Redhawks' games this season that they had been kept scoreless and the first time since Feb. 14 against Southern Oregon.
The Bucs only managed two runs in the fifth inning when Nadia Gutierrez and Alvarez both scored off of a DiNicola single to center. Dinicola finished game two 2-3 with two RBIs.
The series split with Simpson makes the Buccaneers the only team to defeat the Redhawks in conference play all season. It also means that the Buccaneers finish their 2021 campaign with an 8-8 record.
