Bears turn up heat as playoffs approach

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As Madera runs away with the Tri-River Athletic Conference softball championship and, in all likelihood, the No. 1 seed heading into the Central Section Division I playoffs, Buchanan appears to have staked its claim to the league's second position.

The Bears (23-11, 6-4) followed a 4-2 come-from-behind victory over Clovis High May 2 with a 3-1 win over Clovis East May 6 to stay a game ahead of the Cougars (24-9, 5-4) with one game remaining in the regular season. Madera (28-3-1, 9-0) is unbeaten in conference play.

"You obviously want to be winning going [into the postseason], but we're playing pretty well as well as winning, which is big," said Buchanan coach Dean Gregory, whose club has won three straight heading into its regular-season finale at Central (20-11, 2-7) May 9.

Against the Timberwolves (21-9-1, 4-5), Buchanan capitalized on an early Clovis East miscue in a three-run first inning. With one on and one out, Bryanna Ferguson reached when shortstop Melissa Davin was unable to handle a potential-double play grounder. Rushael Lawley made the Timberwolves pay immediately, lacing the next pitch to center to score Bailey O'Dell, who led off with a single. Two batters later, Taylor Wright hit what would prove to be the game-winner, poking a shot just over third base to score two.

"It was weird because I really didn't think it was that great of an at-bat," the freshman first baseman said. "I was like, 'Dang it!' as I was running down the bases and then, hey, we scored two runs."

The Buchanan defense made the lead stand with several stellar plays, none more important than a diving lunge by Michelle Murphy on a smash off the bat of Brooke Nasalroad with runners on first and third and two outs. The second baseman ranged to her right, came up with the ball and threw to second for the force to end the threat.

"They're going to score a run there," Gregory said. "The inning is still going and they still have good hitters coming up."

Clovis East broke through in the sixth against Kelsey Schueler when Rochelle Sales scored on a Jenna Belardinelli grounder to second. That would be all Schueler would allow. She held Clovis East to six hits and had nine strikeouts, including the final three outs in the seventh

After the first-inning hiccup, Clovis East left-hander Kelsey Pastenieks settled down, limiting the Bears to three singles over the final 51/3 innings.

"They made their own breaks," Clovis East coach Matt Mikolavich said. "They competed well. It could have gone either way. ... You just can't give them three runs and expect to come back."

Murphy's two-run triple sparked a four-run sixth inning as Buchanan rallied past Clovis May 2. Samantha Mendoza's double scored Murphy to put the Bears ahead. Darcy Ulrich added a run-scoring double.

In other action May 6, Clovis scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to edge Central 4-3. Kapri Angotti tripled with one out, and Stephanie Watts, Shelby Batrich and Chelse Roberts followed with back-to-back-to-back singles to end it. Clovis West (13-17, 1-8) fell to Madera 8-2. Leesa Gresham belted a two-run home run in the loss.