Karlee Earl goes three for three in the win for the Bears 

The John Burroughs Bears came away with a dominant 15-2 mercy rule victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as Karlee Earl went three for three in the win for the Bears. Earl hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the first, reached base on a walk in the bottom of the second inning, doubled in the third inning, and then tripled in the fourth inning, finishing a single short of a cycle. 

Burroughs entered coming off a 3-1 record in the Woodbridge Dugard Tournament, coming away with a 2-1 win over Mater Dei, a nail-biting 13-12 win over San Juan Hills, along with a blowout 10-1 loss to Torrance. Cleveland entered the contest coming off a 21-1 loss to Harvard-Westlake back on Monday. 

Kalani Miramontes worked around a two-out walk by striking out Samantha Rosales swinging in the top of the first. Karlee Earl and Chloe Zavala both drove in two runs, which resulted in a four-run home half of the first inning for the Bears. Earl hit a two-run homer to start the scoring, and Zavala hit a two-run RBI single to keep the offense going for the Bears. 

Miramontes then retired the side in order in the top of the second inning, along with getting out of a basesloaded jam in the top of the third inning. Miramontes pitched three strong innings, struck out four batters, and allowed two hits in her three innings of work. Miramontes also hit a two-run double in the bottom of the second inning to help contribute to the offense. 

Burroughs continued to have control of the game throughout the third and fourth innings, which continued to be a one-sided affair for the Bears, but Jessica Van Zyl ended Burroughs’ shutout hopes with a two-run single in the top of the fifth inning. Van Zyl also advanced to second base on an error charged to Hailey Franco. Franco then got Julie Patz on a groundout to first baseman, Valentina Reyes, and then struck out Rosales to end the game. 

“I was really happy with the win, we knew coming into the Cleveland game that we were gonna get a lot of people in and give a lot of our non-starters playing time since they don’t always have those types of opportunities,” said Doug Nicol. Nicol praised Kalani Miramontes for her first home start and mentioned that she pitched well. He also noted that Karlee Earl had another impressive game with the bat. 

Burroughs improves to 8-2 and Cleveland falls to 2-8. Both teams will play a second of a back-to-back on Thursday as Burroughs will travel to Studio City to take on Harvard-Westlake at 3:30 p.m., and then Cleveland will host San Fernando at 3:00 p.m.