Lopez no-hits Turks

Pitcher carries Falcon fastpitch team to 10-0 victory

“Ashley Lopez pitched her team’s first no-hitter in recent memory as the South Whidbey fastpitch team breezed past Sultan on Friday.On offense, the Falcons drew a lot of walks, took advantage of Sultan errors, and scored at will. The game ended after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule with South Whidbey ahead 10-0.We ran the bases and were very aggressive, said coach Renee Christian. However, the aggressiveness let up when South Whidbey got its winning lead. I’ve been there before, Christian said, recalling the recent past when South Whidbey was at the bottom of the standings. I didn’t want to do it to somebody else.Lopez, who is a freshman, totally dominated the winless Turks. She faced only 20 batters in five innings and struck out 10 of them. It was her third consecutive shut-out in as many starts this year.The win improved the Falcons’ North Cascades Conference record to 4-1. The Sultan game was played Friday after it was rained out Tuesday. A scheduled game against Meridian was postponed until April 17 due to the death of someone close to Meridian’s program, according to Christian.The Falcons played an important game against conference-leading Mount Baker on Tuesday. Thursday the Falcons host Blaine at 4:30 p.m.”