SOFTBALL ROUNDUP : Fountain Valley Beats Huntington Beach

Brooke Blower didn’t waste any time getting her point across to Fountain Valley Coach Cary Baker.

Blower hit the first pitch in each of her three plate appearances Friday, driving in two runs and helping the host Barons score a 3-0 Sunset League victory over Huntington Beach.

Fountain Valley (11-3, 4-0 in league) won its fifth game in a row. The Oilers are 4-7, 1-3.

Blower, a junior left fielder, hit a run-scoring single in the second inning, a run-scoring ground ball in the fourth and a sacrifice bunt in the sixth. Not bad production from the No. 8 spot in the batting order, considering she entered the game hitting .190; she’s now up to .217. And not bad considering that a day earlier, Baker had used a designated hitter in place of Blower.

“She did everything I asked her to do today,” Baker said. “She certainly helped herself.

“She’s not going to face a better pitcher than (Stephanie Noffsinger) in our league.

“That tells me I’m not going to DH for her anymore.”

Noffsinger (3-5) surrendered only two hits. She didn’t walk anyone, but there were eight errors behind her, including two of her own that led to two runs.

Blower drove in sophomore Lynea Backlund with the game’s first two runs. Backlund singled in the second, advanced when Noffsinger dropped a pop-up and scored on Blower’s single up the middle.

Backlund reached base in the fourth on a throwing error, was sacrificed to second by Alicia Burdick, took third on another error, and scored on Blower’s sharp grounder.

Danelle Lovetro scored the final run. She doubled, then scored on Noffsinger’s throwing error on Danny Rodriguez’s infield single.

Rodriguez (9-1) allowed three hits in pitching her eighth shutout. She lowered her earned-run average to 0.11. She had averaged a strikeout per inning this season but struck out only two Friday.