THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Grand Junction High School Athletics

Kali Kisselburgh pitched well and came up with a big two-run single, but her leadership was key Tuesday for the Grand Junction High School softball team. The senior limited Fruita Monument to no earned runs, three hits and struck out four in the Tigers' 8-2 Southwestern League victory Tuesday night at Bergman Field. The Tigers (6-10, 4-1 SWL) built a 7-0 lead, but Fruita Monument (7-9, 3-2) took advantage of two Grand Junction errors in the third inning, scoring a run and loading the bases. That's when Kisselburgh met with her teammates in the pitching circle. "She goes about it in a great manner," Grand Junction coach Si Espinoza said. "She has a great demeanor. She keeps everyone loose. We've got to brush off errors and we did that tonight. We were able to get a ground ball and get out of that (inning)." On the next pitch, it was as if the two previous errors never happened. Kisselburgh induced a weak ground ball to first base for the third out. "I kept my positivity up and made sure everyone stayed up," Kisselburgh said. "You have to stay positive. If you get down on a couple errors, our team gets down and we don't come back up. We had to stay positive." Kisselburgh limited the Wildcats to two hits, one walk and hit one batter from the fourth through the seventh innings. Both of Fruita's runs were unearned. The first scored on one of the two errors in the third. The second scored on a passed ball that became a dead ball when it ricocheted into the Fruita dugout in the seventh. "She did a great job," Espinoza said. "She was hitting locations. She's been working hard on her change-up. She showcased that tonight. It helps teams stay off her fastball and allows her to go longer into the game. She's starting to throw (the change-up) with confidence." Kisselburgh received all the run support she needed in the second inning. With the bases loaded, Iralind Hayworth reached on an error, allowing one run to score. Breck Smith followed with a base hit to score a second run. A third run scored on a passed ball, then Kisselburgh made the Wildcats pay with a two-run single. All five runs were unearned. Kisselburgh said she was looking for a pitch to drive into the outfield and got one down the middle of the plate. "That put us behind the eight-ball," Fruita coach Bob Bledsoe said. "It made a larger mountain to climb, but we still only scored two runs. They hit the ball at the right place at the right time." Grand Junction added two runs in the third with base hits from Kayla Bobbit, Erica Broderson and Hayworth. Bobbit was 2 for 4 in the eight hole and drove in a run with a fielder's choice in the fourth. Espinoza credited the bottom half of the lineup for sparking the offense. "The bottom of our lineup has started producing," Espinoza said. "We didn't have that early in the year. We dropped Haeleigh Harris into the six hole just to try and turn over the bottom half (of the lineup). Sure enough, she led off the inning two or three times. That's been a good change for us." Central (10-4, 3-0 SWL) was also in action and beat Montrose (5-12, 0-3) on the road, 11-0.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Grand Junction High School Athletics

KISSELBURGH LEADS GJ PAST RIVAL FRUITA

ALLEN GEMAEHLICH

The Daily Sentinel | 9/19/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Grand Junction High School Athletics