OREM — The Timpanogos softball team faced one of the best-hitting teams in Class 5A when it went up against Spanish Fork on Monday, but the Timberwolves succeeded in turning the game into a pitchers' duel.
The T-Wolves' ace Alli Bramwell came up with another dominating performance and held the Dons to only a single hit in her team's 2-0 victory.
Tajia Law hit a two-run single in the bottom of the first inning to give Timpanogos the only scores of the game and Bramwell effectively shut down the Dons' offense that has given most opposing pitchers a very tough time.
"I'll bet (Spanish Fork) hasn't been shut out in a while," said Timpanogos coach Frank Bramhall. "With our pitching we know if we get some runs we're going to be OK."
Bramwell finished with 11 strikeouts. Ten of those were with the batter swinging. In the T-Wolves' previous two games against Mountain View and American Fork, Bramwell struck out a combined 28 hitters without allowing a run in either game.
Aside from the pitching, Chelsey Brown had the hit of the day with a deep first-inning double that sailed straight down the third base line and put two Timpanogos runners in scoring position. The hit set up Law's RBI single two batters later.
"The play of the game was probably Chelsey Brown's double," said Bramhall. "That got us our two runs. She just drilled that. I think it mentally got us ready to play."
It was a big day on multiple accounts for Brown. Earlier in the day the senior got an official offer to play basketball for Snow College next season.
"We just knew that we wanted to get our offensive bats going from the very beginning," said Brown. "I think I wanted it a lot, too, because this is region play and we haven't beaten Spanish Fork in high school ball since I was a freshman. I just wanted it really bad."
Tina Ferguson's leadoff single into right field in the fourth inning was the only hit of the game for the Dons. Ferguson managed to get to second base on a steal, but Bramwell fanned the next three batters to quickly end the threat.
The only other runner to get on base for Spanish Fork was Jessica Anderson on a walk in the seventh inning.
"It's really nice to be the one on the side of the scoreboard with the runs on it," said Brown. "We played together as a team really well."
Ginny Stahle pitched for the Dons and had three strikeouts while holding Timpanogos to six hits.