Ehrig hits two home runs, Matadors sweep GateWay

While her teammates were blasting home runs left and right, Briana VanSickle quietly put together her second no-hitter in a week.

It was so quiet, in fact, even the Arizona Western freshman didn't know she had one.

Her gem led the Matadors to a 10-0 win over lowly GateWay after they topped the Geckos 6-0 in Game 1.

“Honestly, I don't pay attention to it,” said VanSickle. “I just try to stick to the game, do my job.”

VanSickle (11-4) got all the runs she needed in the first. April Marquez and Summer Ehrig each hit two-run homers after Mariah Caro started the scoring with an RBI single.

In the game last week at Thatcher, VanSickle said, she was also unaware that she was throwing a no-hitter.

“Even then I didn't have a clue until someone told me. I think I was even less focused (on the no-hitter) just because it was such a big game.”

AWC coach Nikki Bethurum said she's been happy with the way VanSickle has pitched lately.

“She's putting some nice spin on the ball, which is making a big difference. It's throwing some batters off, and the ball doesn't get hit solid when you put that amount of spin on it.”

Ehrig added her fifth home run of the year in the third inning after completing a hitless first game.

“I was just seeing the ball real good,” Ehrig said. “She was pitching me low and out, and I just was able to hit them over.”

Marquez also had a multi-home run day, belting a shot out of the park in her second at-bat of the first game and finishing a hit shy of the cycle, scoring four times.

The Matadors (27-11 overall, 18-6 Arizona Community College Athletic Conference) started the day right, scoring 10 runs in the first inning on just three hits: a two-run double by Alex Roman, a three-run double by Caro and Marquez's two-run homer.

Roman added a two-run double as part of a five-run third. Hayley Miller (12-4) pitched three innings of one-hit ball for the win.

GateWay falls to 2-26 on the year and 0-26 in conference play.

“We showed up, and we didn't do that in the last tournament game we had,” Bethurum said. “So we came out, we had that energy in the first inning, which is nice to see.”

Bethurum said she tried to down play the Geckos' record coming into the game. Ehrig said she was happy the team came out with energy and didn't play down a level.

“It's pretty difficult but we do a good job of staying focused,” Ehrig said. “We do goof around, but we're still focused.”