Seminole Maiden pitcher Jodie Vaughn came within one batter of throwing a perfect game Tuesday against the Fillies as she finished with a no hitter in shutting down the Fillies bats in a 6-0 win on the Fillies home turf.
The hard throwing right hander kept the Fillies off balanced mixing in a good fast ball with a changeup that kept the hometown team off balanced throughout the game.
Vaughn was perfect through 6 2/3 innings facing 20 batters before walking Kennedy Larrera on a full count in the bottom of the 7th inning. However she recovered nicely by striking out Heidi Gonzales to preserve the no-hitter and the shut out.
This marked the second shutout hurled by Vaughn in district action after the Maidens opened district play shutting out state ranked Levelland last Friday.
It was also Vaughn who provided the only runs needed by the Maidens when she hammered a two-run homer over dead center field in the top of the 4th inning. Up until then Vaughn was being matched pitch for pitch from Fillie starter Jewell Santillan as both pitchers had no hitter perfect games with each facing the minimum nine batters through three innings.
Seminole finally broke through when Kierra Mendoza led off the top of the 4th with a clean single between third and short to start the inning. Two batters later Vaughn caught up with one of Santillan’s fast balls and send it over the head of centerfielder Haleigh Gonzales ten feet beyond the fence. That proved to be all the runs the Maidens would need.
The next inning Seminole added two more runs, one unearned, on three hits to up their lead to 4-0. And in the top of the 6th inning the Maidens took advantage of two throwing errors by Fillie third baseman Kathleen Chavez to come up with two more unearned runs for their final runs of the game.
Jewell started the game for the Fillies going five complete innings. She gave up four runs, three of which were earned, struck out three and issued no base on balls. Haleigh came on in the 6th giving up two runs, both of which were unearned, on two hits, also had three strikeouts and issued no base on balls.
The loss evened the Fillies district record at 1-1 while Seminole is 2-0. The Fillies headed to Lamesa on Friday while the Maidens traveled to Brownfield.
