Coming off a nine-day layoff the Lower Columbia Softball team found sunshine in Salem on Sunday, but took a while to find its batting eye in a doubleheader split at Chemeketa. The Storm won the opener 4-2, before the Red Devils bounced back to take the nightcap 7-2.
 
The games were postponed to Sunday due to rain and wind on April 20.
 
Game one started well for LCC, as Katelyn McGough pounded a lead-off ringing double and later scored on a Katie Adkins sacrifice fly.
 
Chemeketa strung together a walk, three hits and a Red Devil throwing error to take a 3-1 lead in the second inning.
 
After both teams posted zeroes the next two innings, Jada Cargo-Acosta led off the fifth inning with a solo home run to bring LCC within a run. But Chemeketa answered right back with a run of its own, to go up 4-2.
 
The Red Devils loaded the bases in the sixth but could not find the big hit to overcome the two-run deficit. Jade Behic took the tough luck loss in the circle for Lower Columbia – allowing just three earned runs on six hits, while striking out five and walking five Storm hitters.
 
Lower Columbia had five hits in the game. Behic led the way with a double and single.
 
The Red Devils struck quickly in game two when Behic pounded her team-leading 17^th bomb of the season in the first inning.
 
But Chemeketa used a walk and three hits to answer in the bottom half and take a 2-1 lead off Red Devil starter Darby DeRuyter. But that would be the last runs of the game for the Storm.
 
Emily Panush singled in Maddie Curaming, who had earlier walked to lead off the second inning, to tie the game at 2-2. Two innings later McGough hammered her 15^th home run of the season – a mammoth shot to left field – to score DeRuyter and give the Devils a 4-2 lead.
 
LCC broke it open in the sixth compliments of its 7-8-9 hitters. Cargo-Acosta blasted a solo shot to open the inning, DeRuyter then doubled, went to third base on a Panush infield single and scored on a Storm throwing error. Panush later moved to third base on Behic's deep fly ball and scored on the second Storm throwing error of the inning.
 
Besides going 3-4 at the plate, DeRuyter pitched the win going six innings. She allowed just four hits, with one strike out and one walk. Rylee Peters closed the game out with a strong 1-2-3 seventh inning in the circle.
 
Panush was 2-3 with a sacrifice bunt.
 
Lower Columbia is now 18-10 overall and 9-3 in NWAC South Region competition, one game behind league-leading Southwestern Oregon in the loss column.
 
The games Sunday opened a busy week, all on the road, for the Red Devils. Next up is Centralia on April 26, followed by Clackamas on April 27 and Mt. Hood on April 30. Read Full Article