ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Late clutch hitting and pitching from the Elk Grove Thundering Herd got them back in the win column in league by a score of 3-1 at home over the Davis Blue Devils. 

The previous day against the Monterey Trail Mustangs, the Herd broke a three-game losing streak that started on April 1 with a loss to league rival the St. Francis Troubadours and was able to get over the Blue Devils on April 10 to move to 2-1 in league. 

“We had a long talk about stepping up and being leaders and being positive but sometimes they get down on themselves and as leaders, it gets off on others on the team so we did team bonding this week to be able to get them comfortable with talking to each other,” Herd head coach Amanda Buck said. 

Leading off the third inning for the Herd was senior Taylor Fitzgerald, who hit a high fly ball into right field that hung up in the air and just as she was rounding first, the ball hit off the right field fence sending the outfielder crashing into it. 

Fitzgerald turned on the jets with the fallen outfielder and slid across home plate to give her the team the lead for her first career home run for the Herd, according to MaxPreps. 

“She’s (Fitzgerald) has been struggling a bit with getting her timing down so she did a great job at making an adjustment on her own and squared that ball up and I thought she was going to get her first out-of-the-park home run, but she got around the bases pretty quick,” Buck said. 

This gave the lead to senior Madison Carda, who to this point had hung three zeros on the scoreboard but was met with a lead-off triple from the Blue Devils that scored two batters later on a double. 

Neither team could push runs across, as Carda continued to move the ball well even without strikeout stuff, Buck said. 

“She mixes up her speed going in and out and she has a nice curveball that she’s throwing, which keeps people on their toes, and she gets us ground balls and we’ve really focused on our defense this year as we don’t really have strikeout pitchers, but I have pitchers who will keep batters off-balance,” Buck said. 

Buck gives props to her defense to be able to support their pitchers, and even if they do make errors, they don’t hang their heads and make the next play to record the out. 

Carda ran into trouble in the top of the sixth inning when two singles and an error loaded the bases with two outs, but she was able to get out of the jam to hang another zero and allow her team to go to the plate with the tie game intact. 

“I think it comes down to our veterans with a senior on the mound and a senior behind the plate because they don’t get rattled very often as they’re very confident in their defense and in their pitcher,” Buck said.

Taking the lead in the bottom of the sixth meant giving Carda the chance to come out for the final three outs of the ballgame, and that’s exactly what the Herd offense did. 

The offense was sparked with small ball as sophomore Annabel Focht reached on an error, which was followed by a sacrifice bunt from senior Angelina Barros. The following batter was junior Loie Moore, who doubled down the third-base line to put the Herd ahead.

To extend the lead to 3-1 and add to her RBI total, Fitzgerald hit a single down the first-base line that hit off the bag to allow Carda to close it out. 

“We finally made some adjustments as we were struggling there with the speed, and that’s been our struggle this year with making the adjustments early but we find a way to make them at the end but they came up clutch,” Buck said.

A lead-off single did not phase Carda, as she got two ground balls with the following batters with a fielder's choice and then a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play was turned to end the game.

The final out was met with an eruption from her home dugout with her head coach even jumping in the air as the final out was recorded at first base to improve the Herd’s overall record to 9-7.