RIPON – Tokay pitcher Arianna Lozano was too much for Ripon Christian to handle.
Lozano went the distance for the visiting Tigers on Friday, striking out 11 while allowing just two hits as Tokay downed the Knights 4-2 in non-league softball action at Ripon Christian.
“She threw well,” Tokay coach Aaron Misasi said of Lozano. “This is her fourth game of the week – we played four games in a row – and it’s tough. We have basically one varsity pitcher and sometimes a JV one comes up and helps.
“It was long week but she did well. That shows a lot of guts and heart and I’m proud of her.”
One of the two hits Ripon Christian (1-3) had was a towering one-out triple to the center-field fence by Katie O’Leary in the sixth inning. O’Leary scored on a groundout by Elizabeth Thomas to make the score 4-2.
“It’s one of those things that if it comes it comes but that is what you practice toward,” O’Leary said. “When you’re hitting you aim for the base hit and the power will come when it comes.”
The other Knights hit came when leadoff hitter Nicole Chapman racked a double on the first pitch she saw in the bottom of the first. Chapman is one of five starting freshmen for Ripon Christian which has eight freshmen on the roster.
“I have a bunch of freshmen and they are stepping up,” Knights coach Lenny Rizzuto said. “They’re stepping up really fast.
“The game today wasn’t bad. They’re a Division I school and we’re Division VI and we’re coming up to a level we’ve never played at before.”
A pair of errors by Tokay (4-0) in the fourth inning landed Madison DeGraaf at second and Nikki Berghorst at first with one out. Both runners moved up 60 feet on Saylor De Abreu’s groundout and DeGraaf scored on a wild pitch to make the score 4-1.
The Tigers scored three runs in the fourth. Keala Brown led off the frame with a home run, and Aliah Cisneros added a two-out two-RBI double for a 3-0 lead.