Softball: Elk Grove blanks Maine West
Monday was April Fools' Day but Elk Grove wasn't fooling around at all.
The Grenadiers were all business under their hall of fame coach Ken Grams, the state's winningest active softball coach.
Grams' club rolled past Maine West 10-0 in five innings for his 927th career win and first on his home field this spring.
The Grenadiers' junior battery of right-hander Lauren Clausen and catcher Katia Pendowski did their best to fool the Warriors' hitter.
Clausen allowed just 1 hit, losing the bid for her first no-hitter when senior Maraya Adams landed a popup in shallow left field to lead off the top of the fifth.
Clausen retired the next three batters, getting 2 strikeouts and a fly out to center fielder AJ Trausch.
"That was one of Lauren's best games (on the mound)," said three-year veteran catcher Pendowski, who walloped the third grand slam of her career in the Grens' 6-run second inning.
"She was attacking the batters, hitting her spots and giving me pitches to frame and stretch the zone a little. She was right on top of where she had to be."
Clausen (1-0) struck out six and walked one.
"Lauren pitched well," Grams said. "She was really ahead of the batters and in control of what she wanted to do."
Clausen also had one of the Grens' 9 hits, a two-out single to center in the bottom of the fourth.
"We've been practicing inside for so long it's nice to be outside," Clausen said. "I was hitting my spots and Katia did a real good job for me."
Pendowski also did a real good job giving Clausen the big 9-0 cushion after two innings. Her grand slam to right-center brought home Olivia Masnica, Alexa Fontanetta and Grace Engwall (2-for-2).
"Coach Grams is really good at preaching to be aggressive early in the count, and getting ourselves in a good position in the at-bat," said Pendowski, who also lined out sharply to center in her previous at-bat. "I didn't get it square on the barrel but it still worked out well."
Brooke Baldassarre (2-for-3) started the big second-inning rally with an infield hit and eventually scored when Masnica walked with the bases loaded.
The sixth run of the inning was a solo homer by Trausch that also flew over the right field fence with plenty of room to spare.
The Grens (2-1) now have 7 homers in three games.
Morgan Leach and Masnica also had hits for EG, which did not commit an error.
"I thought we handled the wind well," Grams said. "There were a lot of balls in the air and we communicated and kept our feet moving."
"The chemistry is really good," Pendowski added. "We all support each other and want to see each other do well."
Clausen retired 12 of the first 13 batters she faced (walk to Warriors starting pitcher Jessica Steingard).
"We ran into a good pitcher and we didn't have our stuff today," said Maine West coach Jim Dvorak, whose club is 4-3. "Maraya broke up the no-hitter and that's about the only good thing. Angelis (Beiza) almost got one to go over the fence (fifth inning) but just missed with that wind.
"But we didn't have anything really going from the start. It was tough going in that first inning (2 errors helped lead to 3 runs) and we were not playing fundamental softball. We had a couple of costly errors and mistakes we should not be making at varsity level."