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CHARGER INVITE: Sophomores get Cimarron off to good start

Cimarron-Memorial’s softball team relies heavily on a pair of sophomores for a major portion of its production — pitcher Carrie Sheehan and catcher Nora Murphy.

Both played significant roles in the Spartans’ 4-2 win over Imperial Valley (Calif.) on Monday during the afternoon portion of the Clark Invitational Tournament at West Flamingo Park.

Of the six local teams participating in the tourney, only Cimarron won both of its games Monday. The Spartans will attempt to sweep their pool as Cimarron meets Hilltop (Calif.) at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Cimarron rolled into the afternoon portion of Monday’s play with an 8-0 win over Birmingham (Calif.). Sheehan used her bat in that contest, driving in three runs.

In the second game, the sophomore did her job in the circle, scattering four hits.

“(Sheehan) was on, hitting her spots,” Murphy said. “She was throwing hard and putting the ball where she wanted. It feels great to win both games today.”

Murphy started things for the Cimarron offense with a solo home run leading off the third against Imperial Valley starter Erica Lopez.

“That home run was amazing,” Murphy said of her second homer of the season. “We played well, but we can always do better.”

Murphy had two hits for the Spartans, who scored their runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

Meanwhile, Sheehan struck out seven and allowed only an RBI single to Shalyn Cheatham in the fourth and a run-scoring groundout to Dani Castleberry in the fifth. Following the Castleberry RBI, Sheehan retired the final seven batters.

In other games:

Sylmar (Calif.) 5, Green Valley 1 — Green Valley gave up a grand slam in the eighth inning to suffer its first loss of the tournament.

Katie Stewart allowed six hits in a losing effort for the Gators.

Banning (Calif.) 4, Shadow Ridge 3 — Ashley Eldridge  and Mary Jordan had two hits each, but the Mustangs fell to Banning.

Mandy Harmon struck out three but hurt herself by issuing eight walks and hit two other batters.

El Camino Real (Calif.) 9, Desert Oasis 1 — El Camino Real broke open a tight game with a five-run third.

Emily Heinz had two of the Diamondbacks’ three hits.

Granada Hills (Calif.) 8, Valley 6 — Granada Hills scored four runs in the opening inning and never looked back in beating the Vikings.

Lorena Villamar and Zoe Galindo each had two hits for Valley.

Chatsworth (Calif.) 2, Clark 1 — Chatsworth scored both of its runs in the fifth inning to defeat the host team.

Clark managed five hits in its first game of the day, all singles.

Christian (Calif.) 9, Desert Oasis 0 — For the second straight game, the Diamondbacks allowed nine runs to an opponent.

Christian scored four runs in the opening inning and cruised from there.

The Diamondbacks were outhit 8-1.

Carlsbad (Calif.) 5, Shadow Ridge 4 (10 innings) — In the longest game of the afternoon session, Carlsbad pushed a run across in the bottom of the 10th to down the Mustangs.

Harmon went 3-for-4 for Shadow Ridge, which sent the game into extra frames with a run in the top of the sixth.

Green Valley 6, Carson (Calif.) 1 — The Gators rallied from the Sylmar loss behind the bat of Carly Smith.

Smith drove in five runs, including a big double during a three-run fifth to break open the game.

Southwest (Calif.) 4, Valley 3 (10 innings) — Another local team went down in extra innings as Southwest rallied to defeat Valley.

Valley led 2-0 before Southwest scored single runs in the eighth and 10th innings for the win.

Ramona (Calif.) 7, Clark 6 — Clark’s Jasmine Fukuda had three hits, including a home run, but Ramona held on for the win.

The Chargers had seven hits, with Anna Jaehn going 4-for-4 to go along with Fukuda’s three.

Cimarron-Memorial 8, Birmingham (Calif.) 0 — The Spartans broke open a scoreless game with four runs in the fourth.

Sheehan tossed a two-hitter to go with her three-RBI day at the plate. Starlyn Thomas added three hits for Cimarron.
 

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