Vikes' Josie Sinkeldam rounds bases as
umpire signals home run in 6th inning
of 6-2 season-opening win.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Freshman shortstop Josie Sinkeldam went three-for-four including a towering home run down the right field line in her high school debut, and a revamped La Jolla High softball team swamped visiting Mar Vista, 6-2, Wed., Feb. 4, in the first game of the Pacific Beach Classic that runs for four days.
Sophomore third baseman Linda Brown added another home run and was two-for-four in the Vikings' season opener. Last year Brown had two round-trippers.
Sinkeldam, who also made some nice stops in the field, belted an outside pitch to right with one out in the sixth, La Jolla leading 4-1. The ball sailed just inside the foul line and cleared the white plastic barriers that serve as the outfield fence.
"Freshmen rule" was called out at one point from the La Jolla dugout as three ninth-graders started for the Vikings, which look like a vastly different team from last year. Four sophomores, including Brown, populate Coach Anthony Sarain's 2015 squad as well, for a total of seven underclassmen.
However, senior standbys Katja Sarain and Stephanie Alvarez, the teams' co-captains, made up the battery. Sarain, who has pitched virtually every inning of La Jolla softball over the past four years, throttled the Mariners, holding them to four hits and solo runs in the first and last frames. Alvarez had two hits in three at-bats.
"If we come out with this much energy, we'll do well," said Tracy Brown, assistant coach and father of Linda Brown.
First baseman Emily Alvarez, another freshman, had an RBI single in the fourth to drive in her sister Stephanie. Vanessa Schaffer, the third freshman starter in left field, had singles in the fourth and fifth innings.
The elder Alvarez sister, a starter all four years like Sarain, went two-for-three at the plate with two RBI's to lead the Vikings in that category. Stephanie, formerly the Vikings' third baseman before a need opened up at catcher last year, drove in LJHS's second and third runs in the fifth inning to put the Vikings permanently in the lead. She doubled on the first pitch to send Sinkeldam and Brown around to score, before scoring herself.
By the way, Linda Brown hit .417 last year as a ninth-grader while Stephanie came in at an even .400.
La Jolla has not shown this much offensive pop in recent years, nor the glove prowess more than one Vike defender displayed in the field. Brown, a sophomore, made a nice grab on a line shot to her left in the sixth. Sinkeldam had a gem of her own to start off the top of the seventh.
Katja Sarain, going the distance in the pitcher's circle to open the season, struck out six and had no walks. She did give up a home run blast to the Mariners' Jazmine Adams in the seventh after things were already well in hand with a five-run lead. The hurler hasn't enjoyed such run support in all her years at the Westbourne site.
Lefty Mazzi Tamaiko was handcuffed in three trips to the plate Wednesday, but she's coming off a sizzling .391 average as a sophomore last year. She also had six steals in seven attempts last year.
Second baseman Sara Tyrus, who went 0-for-3, led the Vikings with seven steals in seven attempts last year as a freshman.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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