Carson's Jailene Salciedo makes the catch while avoiding teammate Cat Linkul during Thursday's game against Damonte Ranch.
There were two bright spots for Carson High’s young softball team on Thursday.
Freshman Jailene Salciedo went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs, and sophomore Nicole Brown went 2-for-3 and drove in a run in Carson’s 19-4 mercy rule loss to Damonte Ranch in the Northern Division I opener for both schools.
The Senators face another tough battle on Saturday when they visit defending state champ Reed for an 11 a.m. doubleheader.
Damonte Ranch pounded out 23 hits against Lauren Lemburg and Salciedo. The Mustangs batted around in the first and third innings and sent eight batters to the plate in the other three innings.
Carson, meanwhile, was held to seven hits by Ally Young and Kaytlen Canner.
“They hit the ball well,” CHS coach Shane Quilling said. “There are no easy spots in their order. I was a little disappointed in our hitting. I didn’t think either of their pitchers was dominant. When you score only four runs you aren’t going to win many games.
“We made some errors and didn’t get to some balls, but we weren’t going to beat them because of the way they hit the ball.”
Lemburg got off to a rough start, as Damonte had four straight hits before making an out.
A two-run triple by Maddie Miramon, a run-scoring double by Emma Covert, an RBI single by Kyndra Hans and an RBI single by Alex Garlock capped the explosion.
Carson had a chance to score in the first, but made two baserunning mistakes.
Damonte added four in the second and five in the third to make it 14-0 before the Senators got on the board.
Bailey Allen beat out a bunt single, moved to second on Brown’s infield out and scored on Salciedo’s double to right-centerfield. After Kassidy Cooley flied to left, Camiell Simpson’s groundball was misplayed, allowing Salciedo to score.
The Mustangs tacked on two more in the fourth to make it 16-2, but the Senators added two more to cut the deficit to 16-4.
Gabi Winder hit a liner to left. Hans tried for a shoestring catch, but the ball got past her and Winder made it to third for a triple. Faith Bigelow walked, but Terryn Earle and Allen were retired. Brown and Salciedo singled in runs before Cooley was retired to end the inning.
Damonte added three in the top of the fifth and Carson went out quietly in its last at-bat of the game.
