Sports Staff

5-13-2008

They may have lost the battle but they won the war, in a manner of speaking.
The Bishop High varsity softball team may have lost to visiting Rosamond last Thursday, 2-0, but the Lady Broncos are going to the playoffs as the third-place team from the High Desert League.

Bishop, 6-4 and 13-10-1 overall, will be on the road to play a No. 1 team on Friday, May 16.
The Lady Broncos had a bit of trouble getting their offensive engine going against one of the league’s better pitchers in Cassie Benson, but two batters –  Chelsea Galvin and Tee-Ah-Ni Stone – managed to solve the tall, lanky pitcher.

Bishop first baseman Megan Mather takes a swipe at a Rosamond runner during last week’s loss in Bishop. The Lady Broncos will be in the playoffs starting Friday. Photo by Gary Nickell

Galvin, the Lady Broncos’ center fielder, went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple, while Stone, also one of the HDL’s better throwers, was 1-for-2 with a double.
In contrast, Stone threw a one-hitter, allowing 2 unearned runs, walking just 1 and striking out 12 in seven innings. She finished the regular season as the HDL’s strikeout leader at 244, while Benson was third with 177.
Despite striking out less (Bishop fanned eight times to Rosamond’s 12) and getting more hits (three to the ‘Runners’ one) the Lady Broncos just couldn’t get a runner across, although they had opportunities.
In the seventh inning Bishop had two outs and one on when Stone drew a walk and Rosamond mishandled a Jenny Baker grounder to load the bases. “My courtesy runner (rules say a courtesy runner may run for a pitcher and catcher) Jessi Oney did a great job distracting the shortstop while she was running from second to third,” causing the error,  Coach Stacy Van Nest said, but, the rally ended there as the last Bishop batter struck out to end the game.
In the fifth inning, Galvin hit a double, followed by Stone’s double, and Galvin was waved in to hopefully score the Broncos first run, but was thrown out at the plate.
“I was watching their center fielder in warm-ups and sometimes she made a good throw and sometimes she didn’t,” Van Nest said. “I figured it would take a perfect throw to get Chelsea, so I waved her home. Then the center fielder made a perfect throw.”
And in the second inning  Galvin laced a one-out triple, but was left stranded when the following two batters struck out and grounded out.
“The girls never gave up, they did mount a few rallies,” said Van Nest. “But we committed six errors, and they (Rosamond) didn’t commit their first error until the seventh inning. Plus, they have so much speed, they put a lot of pressure on you.”
Bishop was informed of its first-round opponent yesterday; check the Thursday Inyo Register for who and where.