The Anchor Bay Tars’ 3-1 victory over the Ford Falcons on Thursday afternoon was everything one would expect between two Macomb Area Conference Red teams.

Neither squad made an error in the field and both pitchers — Jenna Walters for Ford and Savannah Letson for the Tars — shoved, combining to walk just three batters and strike out 13.

Because of that, all it took was one big inning for Anchor Bay to lock it down.

After getting just two baserunners through the first three innings, the Tars’ first genuine threat started when Hailey McDonald led off the fourth inning with a single then moved to third on a double by Averi Rowlett on the next pitch.

One pitch later, Hailey’s twin, Autumn, crushed a ball off the left field fence, scoring both her sister and Rowlett to go up, 2-0. Sam Consiglio’s two-out single then brought Autumn McDonald home.

Hailey and Autumn plus Rowlett and Ashley Davidson, all of whom are juniors, form a core of Anchor Bay hitters that helps the Tars stand out from the field.

“They’ve been in the program for three years,” said Anchor Bay head coach Mike Downey. “Those are all juniors. I took them as freshmen. They’re all starting to come into their own right now, and I think our future is very bright this year and moving forward.”

Ford’s best threat and lone run were in the sixth inning. Mia Hesske (BB) and Jenna Walters (single) both reached, and with two outs, Grace Polega hit a line drive up the middle to bring home pinch-runner Peyton Erdman, leaving runners on second and third.

But Letson, who hadn’t allowed a hit until Walters, induced a dribbler from Sam Norrito to quell the threat.

“Pitching and defense wins games, especially at this level,” Downey said. “That’s two good pitchers out there, and we played tremendous defense behind ours.”

Letson’s final line includes seven one-run innings with two hits, two walks and seven punchouts.

She’s one of three pitchers on-roster that Downey trusts in big games, along with junior Lily Vosler and freshman Maddie Nowak. Letson is a sophomore.

That strategy differs from last season, when Downey used Paige Keown, now at Detroit Mercy, most games.

“We have three talented pitchers this year,” Downey said. “We don’t really have a number one. We have a pitching staff, which is beneficial for us. … It has been a transition. We’re very fortunate to have this quality of pitching.”

The win improves the Tars to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the MAC Red.

Ford head coach Matt Joseph says that, while the low offensive output is unfortunate, he doesn’t necessarily think it was all on them, giving credit to Letson and Anchor Bay’s defense.

“I think they played great defense today,” Joseph said. “I thought early on, we hit the ball really hard, and they made some good plays. And, you know, I thought the pitcher threw a good game, and ours did. I thought it was a great high school softball game.”

His ace pitcher, Walters, allowed three runs on five hits and one walk with six strikeouts on top of having one of their two hits out of the leadoff spot.

The Falcons fell to 8-5 and 1-2 in the Red.

Their schedule is about to get busy — they’ll play five games between Friday and Saturday and another six next week.

Joseph hopes to see his team maintain a level of consistency.

“I think consistency is a big thing,” he said. “You know, being able to play a full seven innings. I think that’s probably one of the goals of a lot of teams, is you don’t want the ups and downs. You want to be consistent. And, you know, losing a game like this obviously hurts, but today we got beat, and we didn’t beat ourselves. We got beat.”