Fire Dept. hoses down New Cal in softball win

MARYSVILLE Its our first lead all season, the Fire Department dugout joked of their 1-0 lead before the New California Tavern team came up to bat in the first inning.
Though down 3-1 by the end of the inning, Marysville Fire came back with an 11-run second inning to beat the Cal for its first win of the relatively young city softball season, 21-14 in a June 1 match-up.
Dan Stietz was reliable at bat for the Fire Deparment, scoring five runs in his six at-bats. The first of his two home runs gave Marysville Fire its 1-0 first-inning score.
New Cal outfielder Steve Parrish batted back with a home run of his own in the bottom of the first, and Myles Gallagher and Bill Whiteside extended the Californias lead.
In the top of the second, starting with Marysville Fires Craig Milless, eight consecutive players had hits before second baseman Derek Henry flew out. And even then, Henry had an RBI on the hit.
Milless and Don Pederson each scored their two game runs during the second inning, and with a 12-3 lead by the end of the second, Marysville Fire settled in and got comfortable.
Noah Pester extended Marysville Fires lead with a two-run single in the third to give Stietz his third run and Jeff Avila his second of the game. Derek Henry found home on the next play for a three-run inning.
But the Fire Department offense could not be extinguished, adding another four runs to their tally in the top of the fourth for a 19-3 game, before the California was able to muster a response.
The New Cal Dogs came back, almost exhausting their 15-man lineup in a fourth-inning rally.
Parrish, Gallagher and Whiteside all had their second runs for the Dogs in the fourth inning. First baseman Roger Owens batted in the latter two with a single in his 3-for-3 batting performance. One of the Cals rotating pitchers, Douglas Gilham, batted in the Cals last two runs of the inning, narrowing Marysville Fires lead to nine runs.
Sherm Card and Barry Boren chipped in two more of the Cals three fifth-inning runs and Billy Bingham added another in the sixth, but the Fire Departments Cal Broke and Stietz added two sixth-inning runs as insurance on their win.

At Marysville-Pilchuck H.S.

Marysville Fire 1 11 3 4 0 2 0 21
New California 3 0 0 7 3 1 0 14

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