Spring Valley softball team recovers after shaky start

Spring Valley shook off a 2-2 start in league play to claim the Sunset League’s No. 3 seed for the postseason. The Grizzlies (17-7) will begin postseason play at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Sunrise Mountain.

The wake-up call came early enough for Spring Valley’s softball team.

The Grizzlies, who made the move from Division I to Division I-A before the school year, thought life would be significantly easier in the Southern Region.

But two games into Sunset League play, the Grizzlies dropped a 4-3 decision to Cheyenne and suddenly realized that their new home was more competitive than they had imagined.

“They had the mentality when we first came out that it’s a lower division and that it would be a cakewalk,” Spring Valley coach Caroline Fernandez said. “And then we kind of got surprised by Cheyenne. That was a little bit of a wake-up call, and they realized that they needed to come out and play hard every game because no one was going to just give it to them.”

Spring Valley shook off a 2-2 start in league play, including an early-season loss to Faith Lutheran, to claim the Sunset League’s No. 3 seed for the postseason. The Grizzlies (17-7) will begin postseason play at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Sunrise Mountain. The Sunset Region and Sunrise Region tournaments in Division I and the Southern Region tournament all start Tuesday at host sites.

Spring Valley finished 10-4 in league play, splitting with league champion Sierra Vista, a playoff team in Division I last year, and losing twice to Faith Lutheran, which won the Sunset League each of the past two years.

“We thought it was going to be super easy, but then we got to some of those games like Faith Lutheran and Sierra Vista and realized, yeah, not so much,” junior pitcher Michaela Hood said.

The early shock helped the Grizzlies, who already expected to have a strong season after returning the bulk of their 2014 team.

Hood and her younger sister Madison, a freshman, have anchored a pitching staff that has been sharp.

In league play, Michaela Hood was 5-3 but struck out 91 in 56 innings, including two double-figure strikeout efforts against Sierra Vista and a 13-strikeout performance against Faith Lutheran.

Michaela Hood also had a pitcher’s dream game April 13 against Bonanza when she struck out all 15 Bengals hitters in a five-inning win.

Madison Hood was 3-1 in league play and struck out 22 in 19 innings.

Overall, Spring Valley has allowed no more than one run in 13 of its 24 games.

“With our good pitching, we have our good defense to back it up,” Fernandez said.

And the Grizzlies can be potent offensively.

Senior Ellie Endsley leads the team with a .547 batting average and 11 doubles. Michaela Hood (.462, five home runs), Madison Macove (.419), Normandie Kniola (.415) and Madison Hood (.412) also have hit well throughout the season for a team that averages 7.25 runs per game.

“It’s the hard work and dedication of the players, their ability to come out and take it to the other team,” Fernandez said.

Spring Valley is making its third playoff appearance in four seasons and seventh in 11 seasons, and is hoping it can do something it hasn’t done in the program’s history — advance at least as far as a region title game.

“We just have to keep doing all the little things right,” Fernandez said. “We have to keep getting better every at-bat. We still have the basis of a young team, but we have a little bit of leadership and hopefully they can step up.”

Contact reporter Bartt Davis at bdavis@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5230.