Coming into Friday afternoon's game against Lompoc and pitcher Jeana Carrillo, Santa Maria coach Mia Ituralde knew she needed a strong pitching performance from her pitcher Alyssa Gutierrez.

She got an excellent performance - but it still wasn't enough - as Carrillo continued her shutout streak and Lompoc defeated Santa Maria 2-0 in a Los Padres League game at Santa Maria High.

Carrillo - the Northern Santa Barbara County Roundtable athlete of the week, after throwing two shutouts last week - allowed three hits in the game, while striking out four. She took advantage of her infield, inducing 15 groundouts. One out was recorded in the outfield, when Hillary Davis went deep into foul territory to catch a fly hit by Selina Gonzalez.

At one point with one out in the third, Carrillo retired 12 in a row, until Sam Guzman singled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Since giving up a run in the fourth inning of a 1-0 loss to Morro Bay, Carrillo has pitched four straight shutouts. The scoreless innings streak currently stands at 28 innings

“She has been sharper, but this was a good game for her,” said Lompoc coach Al DiMaria. “She is trying to get more control of her off-speed pitches and she threw more of them today.

“That is just going to help her immensely when we start facing the Templetons, St. Joes and Morro Bays. She has just steadily improved.”

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Carrillo has had games during the streak where she had several strike outs, but in the game Friday, she trusted that the defense would make the plays.

“We work hard on that in practice,” she explained. “I have a lot of confidence in my defense.

“We have worked really hard, staying up on the fence, giving each other confidence.”

DiMaria has noticed a change on the defense as well.

“Defense is playing well,” DiMaria said. “We did have one careless error, but we are playing fairly well defensively.”

Gutierrez was effective as well for the Saints. She surrendered just four hits - two in the first and two in the sixth - both the innings that Lompoc scored.

“I couldn't be more proud of that kid after having a rough outing against St. Joseph,” Ituralde said about her pitcher. “She gave up 10 hits in two-and-a-third innings against St. Joe - and to come back the way she did today was great.

“She moved the ball incredibly, she was hitting her spots - that was a great outing for her.”

In the first for the Braves, Leanna Corral led off with a single and one out later moved to third on a single by Dana Campitelli. After Courtney Dosa walked with two outs, loading the bases, Corral scored on a wild pitch.

Gonzalez started the bottom of the inning for the Saints with a leadoff single that she hit up the middle with an 0-2 count. She was stranded at third after three ground outs.

In the second, the Saints had Guzman on first with one out. Deboni Rucobo hit a grounder to second and the ball hit Guzman in the leg. She was called out for runner interference, leaving Rucobo at first with two outs.

With two outs in the third, Raelyn Marrufo reached first on an error by the third baseman. Then by getting Deja Camacho to groundout to end the inning, Carrillo began her streak of 12 in a row.

While Carrillo was setting down the Saints, Gutierrez was doing the same. She walked two batters in the second, but Hillary Davis was cut down trying to steal second after she walked, before Elicity Fabing followed with another walk. Gutierrez struck pit Corral to end the inning.

Gutierrez walked one batter in each the fourth and fifth, but Lompoc never really threatened in either inning.

The Braves scored an insurance run in the sixth. Carrillo hit a ground-rule double to left, then two outs later, Shandee Berryman doubled to center for the RBI.

It wasn't a huge amount of hitting for Lompoc but DiMaria was happy with when the Braves had their hits.

“Timely hitting - it is always a pleasure to see,” he said. “We're had some hot hitters, but they didn't show it today.

Paty Martinez, our second baseman is batting over .400 in league, Jeana is hitting the ball well and Courtney Dosa has been hitting the ball, but they held them pretty much in check today.”

The final score was much different than the first two times the two team have played this season.

“They first time we played them, I think we scored four unearned runs,” Ituralde said about Santa Maria's 6-5 win at Lompoc.

“The last time we played them we beat them pretty handily at the Best of the West,” DiMaria said about Lompoc's 10-0 win. “But this is a different day and a different game.”

Ituralde was quite upbeat after the game.

“Win or lose we always want to be competitive and today we were,” she explained. “They were up there battling - For our kids this was a great outing today.”

April 20, 2008