CHS tops Roswell

Lynnae Logan wasn’t quite as sharp as she’d have liked, but she was good enough.

Logan scattered seven hits over 6 1/3 innings and junior left-hander Adrianna Aguilar got the final two outs to leave the bases loaded Tuesday night as Clovis High’s softball team edged Roswell High 3-1 at Lady Wildcat Complex, their first win over the Lady Coyotes in at least four years.

Designated player Chyanne Avila scored one run and drove in another for the Lady Wildcats (8-7), who prevented Roswell High (8-3) from the best 11-game start in the history of the program.

“We finally put a complete game together,” CHS coach Brandi Thomas said. “Roswell is a tough team; they’re always solid all the way around.”

The Lady Cats avenged an 11-7 loss to Roswell in the finals of their own tournament on March 1. In that one, they opened a 7-2 lead after two innings before the Lady Coyotes’ Raquel Grajeda shut the door with five shutout innings in relief to allow her team to come back.

This time, Grajeda started and limited the Lady Cats to six hits, but Clovis’ bats found enough holes to scratch out some runs.

“I didn’t realize this was the first time they’ve beaten us in three years,” said Roswell High coach Art Sandoval, referring to his time at the helm. “The bottom line is Clovis has improved, but these are the kind of games you want to be in.”

Logan kept the game scoreless through the top of the fourth, working around seven baserunners in the process. Clovis pushed over a run in the bottom of the inning when Avila led off with a single, took second on a passed ball, moved to third on a fly ball and scored when second baseman Brianna Lopez couldn’t make an over-the-shoulder catch on Kayla Merritt’s soft RBI single into short right.

Roswell tied it in the fifth when Grajeda hit a one-out single, stole second and came around on two wild pitches by Logan. The Lady Cats then loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half and picked up runs on Nicole Anaya’s sacrifice fly and Avila’s RBI single.

“We finally came together as a team,” said Logan, a sophomore right-hander who walked six and struck out five. “I kept getting a lot of 3-0 (counts), but I just had to stay positive.

“It was probably my best game so far this season. We’re getting better; we’re growing as a team.”

The Lady Coyotes mounted a threat against Logan in the seventh on a one-out walk to Ashley Tavarez and singles by Heather Martinez and Jessica Zamora, but Aguilar fanned Lindsey Dubiel and got Lopez on a pop-up to short to end it.

“She finally settled down and just threw,” Thomas said of Logan. “She finally went out and relaxed.”