Timpanogos pushes streak to 5 victories

OREM — In a scene that has become quite familiar, the Timpanogos softball team won its fifth straight game by beating Pleasant Grove, 2-0.

The opponents change and the score line may vary slightly, but the general script of the Timpanogos victories is the same.

In the first inning, one or two of the T-Wolves' hitters will get on base and score some runs for an early lead. Then, pitcher Alli Bramwell will take over the game from the mound and start striking out batters. The Timpanogos bats will cool down but, at the end of the seventh inning, Bramwell will be adding another shutout victory to her season tally and the opponent will be wondering what it could have done to put some runs on the scoreboard.

Against Pleasant Grove, it was Chelsey Brown and Tajia Law recording first-inning RBIs for the game's only runs, and Bramwell striking out 10 batters en route to a fourth consecutive shutout win.

The win makes Timpanogos 4-0 in Region 4 and 9-4 on the season.

"It's exciting," said Bramwell. "The fun thing about our region is we know that every team is good so we have to be ready for every single game. I was a little tired today because the sun was kind of draining me, but it was all right."

T-Wolves coach Frank Bramall has hailed his pitching and defense this year as the strongest he's ever coached. That helps to compensate for inconsistent hitting, but Bramall says he'd still like to find a way to keep the bats alive for seven innings.

"If we can get our bats going," said Bramall, "I feel like we're hitting the ball but we're hitting it right to them. We know we play great defense. Today we were just flat. I think a lot of it was the heat."

For Pleasant Grove, the pitching was too much to overcome. The Vikings were held to two hits and only had four runners get on base all afternoon.

Leah Stoker had a single in the third inning and Kirsten Logan got a hit in the fourth, but both hits came with two outs already on the scoreboard and neither runner advanced past second base.

For Timpanogos, Bramwell led off in the first inning with a bunt, followed by Brown's deep RBI hit to right field and Law's RBI ground out one batter later.

Heather Christiansen pitched for Pleasant Grove and only allowed three scattered hits after the first inning and struck out two batters.