Tigers slow Mills’ roll

Lui admitted it felt a little weird.

“Going into the game there were a lot of mixed emotions,” Lui said as she grew up playing ball with many of the girls on Mills’ roster. She admitted she had faced the Vikings before, but this time, “it was a different vibe, now that we’re in the same league.”

The Vikings certainly felt weird about the matchup, as well. And Mills head coach Michelle Beauchemin said her team might have already been behind the 8-ball before a pitch had been thrown.

“A lot of the girls were saying they hated batting against Alli,” Beauchemin said. “[Lui] got into their heads.”

While Lui certainly had an impact on the game, it was more the Tigers’ bats. Notre Dame collected 12 hits as the Tigers rallied for a 6-3 win.

“Great team win,” said NDB first-year head coach Nick Dykes, who spent the previous two seasons at Hillsdale. “They’re playing for each other.”

Mills has garnered a lot of attention during the non-league portion of its schedule, but if the Vikings have one weakness, it’s the lack of a pure power arm. Starting pitcher Kalia Woo pitches to contact and is mentally tough as she worked the first four innings, giving up one run on six hits.

But her relief didn’t supply her with much as NDB (1-0 PAL Ocean, 6-2 overall) rapped out six hits in the Tigers’ final two at-bats, as they turned a 3-1 deficit into a 6-3 advantage.

The Tigers did all their damage in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. They got on the scoreboard on a RBI single from Caroline Zerella in the bottom of the fourth and tied it at 3-all with two runs in the fifth on RBIs from Juliette Ramirez and Stella Hird as they had five hits in the inning.

NDB then took its first lead of the game with a three-run sixth — taking advantage of a couple Mills mistakes. The first came when No. 8 hitter Isabella Jweinat led off the sixth by striking out. But the pitch was in the dirt and got by the Mills catcher to give the Tigers a leadoff base runner. Eliana Crespin followed with what looked like a routine grounder to shortstop that was booted to put runners on first and second with no outs.

Both runners moved up when a pickoff attempt at first got past the fielder to bring up Hailey Truong at the top of the order. She gave the Tigers their first lead of the game with a sacrifice fly to left that drove in Jweinat for a 4-3 lead.

Troung finished 3 for 3 with a double, RBI and run scored.

Skyler Loo followed with an RBI single and Ramirez walked to load the bases to bring up Lui — who drove the Tigers’ sixth run by drawing a walk.

“We came out really strong, but when things fell apart, we went, ‘Oh no,’” Beauchemin said. “We had them and then we had the errors.”

Lui, meanwhile, was keeping Mills’ potent lineup in check for most of the game. Mills (0-1, 8-2-1) scratched out a run in the top of the first without a hit. Leadoff hitter Jazzy Maske drew a walk, went to second on a passed ball, took third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Lucy Esquivel sacrifice fly to center.

Despite the run, Lui was working on a no-hitter through three innings.

“I play for Coach Nick (with Warrior Softball Academy) and his being confident in me (helps me pitch),” Lui said. “We work really well together.”

Mills’ Audrey Jang broke up the no-hit bid in style. With one out in the top of the fourth, she hammered a deep drive over the fence in left field to put the Vikings up 2-0. After NDB cut it to 2-1 with a run in the bottom of the fourth, the Vikings got the run right back in the top of the fifth when No. 9 hitter Jolie Wong rifled a two-out triple to the base of the fence in right field and scored on Maske’s RBI single to right.

Maske was on base three times with a single and two walks, drove in a run, swiped a bag and scored.

Lui admitted that all the attention the Vikings were getting was certainly bulletin-board fodder for her team.

“That was in the back of our minds,” Lui said. “We had something to prove.”