Mustangs too much for Waubonsie

Updated: May 4, 2011 12:11PM

Talk about a team who likes to score runs.

In the past six games, the Metea Valley softball team has scored 45 runs. The Mustangs added two handfuls more to the total — along with 12 hits — after they beat rival Waubonsie Valley, 10-4, at home in an Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division matchup Tuesday.

“I have complete confidence the kids can get on base,” Metea Valley coach Kris Kalivas said. “We have an offense who can score. We just need to make sure defensively we can keep the other team now.”

“We’ve been hitting pretty good lately,” Metea Valley freshman leadoff batter Alise Perna said. “We keep our heads in the game, don’t give up and we’ve ended up pretty good.”

After Perna scored on a ground out RBI in the first, Waubonsie Valley (7-14, 4-7) fired back with a huge second inning. Julia DiMonte, Amanda Lack and Amanda Minehan all recorded RBI to push the Warriors ahead 4-1.

“We had a good win against St. Charles East (Monday), and that really built our confidence,” Waubonsie Valley coach Aly Kelley said. “Playing against (the Saints) and winning really showed them they can hang with the best, so we came into this game today thinking we were going to win. A lot of the time, I think their mentality has been playing not to lose. Today, we came in playing to win, and we saw that early. They scored a run and we came back with four.”

In the fifth, the Mustangs (7-6, 5-4) took their lead back with four runs on five hits, led by four consecutive hits from Emily Baker, Antoinette Senese, Perna and Alyssa Coletto. All four ended up scoring, with Coletto and Anna Petersen recording RBI.

The entire lineup got a chance to bat in the sixth, when Metea Valley scored five runs on three hits. The inning was highlighted by Sara Knox’ two-run single. Emily Baker recorded her third single and second run of the game and Perna scored her third run (and also finished with two doubles).

Both teams used two pitchers. Metea Valley’s Stephanie Bova earned her second win of the season. She ended up allowing no runs, no walks and three scattered hits after relieving Alexa Caputo after 1 2/3 innings.

“She’s pretty much been our go-to, get-out-of-jams pitcher,” Kalivas said of Bova. “That could change going down the stretch here, but so far, I can’t be happier with what she’s done for us so far.”

“(Against Bova), we were getting solid hits, but we weren’t executing and finishing,” Kelley said. “It’s just a matter of executing and getting it done. We had people getting on base (the Warriors stranded five runners after the second inning), but we couldn’t bring them in.”

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