Softball: Pirates wrap up season with losses to West Hills

The 2017 season came to a close for the Porterville College softball team on Thursday as the Pirates dropped a Central Valley Conference doubleheader on the road to West Hills College Coalinga. Porterville ends the year with an 11-23 overall record and went 7-13 in the CVC to finish in seventh place in the final standings.

Game 1: West Hills Coalinga 2, Porterville 1
West Hills rallied for the walk-off win with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take the opening game of the doubleheader. Sophia Chamberlain pitched well in the narrow defeat, allowing just one earned run and seven hits over 6 2/3 innings. She struck out three and walked four.

The Pirates scored their lone run in the second. Mckenzie Hendricks led off with a triple and came in the score on a single by Raeleen Torres. Hendricks and Torres both had two hits to lead Porterville at the plate.

Game 2: West Hills Coalinga 10, Porterville 8
In the finale, West Hills once again shocked the Pirates with another late-game surge for the win. With Porterville leading 8-7 in the sixth inning, West Hills put up three runs in the bottom of the frame to go ahead for good.

The Porterville offense totaled 15 hits, its second highest output of the season, and burst out to a 6-0 lead after three innings. But West Hills got back into the game with a seven-run, fourth-inning.

Porterville tied up the game in the fifth thanks to a RBI single by Britnei Murray that scored Taylor Brennan. The Pirates recaptured the lead when Torres scored on a two-out error in the sixth.

Danay Lee led Porterville at the plate, going 3 for 5 while Murray, Jayme Knauer, Brennan, Chamberlain, and Hannah Grimes all had two hits each.

Grimes took the loss in relief, allowing four runs and three hits over the final 2 2/3 innings. She struck out one and walked three. Chamberlain started and gave up six runs and eight hits over the opening 3 1/3 innings.