The Chico High School softball coach has dealt with limited personnel in several sports. In a school of just 216 students, losing any athlete to injury or grades makes a difference, and it did Tuesday at home against Alvord.

Last week, however, was tougher than normal on the Lady Dragons as they had to deal with four injured starters as well as the death of shortstop Stephanie Stephens' sister, Jennifer. The Lady Bulldogs smacked 14 hits and never trailed en route to a 22-6 victory.

Chico, which only had three players in their normal defensive positions because of injuries, committed eight errors which allowed the Lady Bulldogs to score in bunches. In fact, they scored 10 times in the first inning and cruised the rest of the way.

Senior Maddison Kinsey crushed a two-run homer and had a three-run triple to lead the scoring in the opening frame.

The Lady Dragons never gave up. Pitcher Jessica Coffman, who returned from injury, retired the side in the second inning to keep things from getting worse.

Chico made up some ground in the bottom of the third inning. Shelby Barnes and Rikki Richardson led off with singles and later scored on a two-run double by Heather Williams. Williams scored on an RBI single by Nikki Weatherly to make it 10-3.

The Lady Bulldogs got those runs back in the fourth inning where they scored three times thanks to a single by Courtney Hopkins. Coffman got out of a bases-loaded jam when she struck out Kinsey to end the inning.

Alvord scored once in the fourth inning and Chico doubled its runs in the bottom half of the inning. Kela Allen, Rachel McKinley and Barnes helped make it a 14-6 ball game.

Alvord put the game away in the fifth inning with eight more runs. Holly Harris, Whitney Enis and Chelsi Redman had the biggest hits around CHS errors to get the win via the mercy rule.

AHS pitcher Ainsley Shaffer allowed just five hits in the game.