The top high school softball tournament in Northern California gets underway on Thursday at the Ernie Rodriguez Softball Complex at Robertson Park when the 25th Annual Livermore Stampede begins Pool play for the 16 teams split into four four-team pools.
Last year’s runner-up Foothill-Pleasanton (9-0) will be in Pool B where the Maxpreps Xcellent 25 No. 3, Cal-Hi Sports state No. 2 and Prep2Prep North Coast Section top-ranked Falcons will bring what could very well be one of the best, if not the best team Coach Matt Sweeney has had since the 2007 team that featured senior Valerie Arioto.
Like last year’s team that lost 8-7 to Freedom-Oakley in the title game of a Championship Flight that was delayed two weeks because of rain, the 2007 team lost 5-4 in the championship to an Archbishop Mitty team that featured an at the time sophomore Keilani Ricketts.
Sweeney has as close to an Arioto or Ricketts, or a Jolene Henderson that led Sheldon-Sacramento to the 2008 Stampede title, as we’ve seen in 11-years since in pitcher and slugger Nicole May. The Oklahoma-committed junior, that is considered one of the top recruits in the nation in the class of 2020, comes into the Stampede playing as well as she ever has, but unlike back when Arioto pitched every game, Sweeney doesn’t take that approach any longer and will not pitch May in back-to-back games just like last year when she beat Castro Valley in the semifinal but did not pitch against Freedom later in the day.
“The Stampede is a great tournament with a lot of good teams, and its right in our back yard, and I want to win, but we’re not going to pitch Nicole in every game,” Sweeney said.
“We’ve been in the championship game the last two years and that’s a great accomplishment,” continued Sweeney. “But you know my philosophy. We’re looking at league (East Bay Athletic League) and NCS so we could get knocked off with teams like Mitty, St. Francis and Sheldon, plus other good teams in the tournament.”
Besides losing last year to Freedom the Falcons lost the 2017 title game to Sheldon-Sacramento
May comes into the Stampede with a 7-0 record and 0.33 ERA with 78 strikeouts in 49 innings pitched. She also has a .600 batting average with four doubles and nine RBI.
Sweeney has several players swinging hot bats right now. May’s battery mate and fellow junior Courtney Beaudin is hitting .650 with two home runs, four doubles and 14 RBI, junior Boise State-committed infielder Hailey Hayes is hitting .580 with five doubles and seven RBI, Pittsburg-bound senior Hope Alley has a .470 average with three doubles, five RBI and five stolen bases, and a fourth junior Allie McElroy is hitting .540 with a home run, four doubles and seven runs batted in.
When May isn’t in the circle the job will fall to sophomore backup Maddie Heinlin.
Joining Foothill in Pool B is Alhambra-Martinez, Dougherty Valley-San Ramon and Whitney-Rocklin.
What about Mitty and Sheldon? They’re both in the Stampede this year.
No sooner did the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section rankings come out on Tuesday with Mitty as the new No. 1 after an 11-0 win last week over previous No. 1 St. Francis, the Monarchs, who also were moved up to No. 5 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports, were beaten by West Catholic Athletic League rival Valley Christian-San Jose in a bit of a surprising 6-0 home loss that dropped them to 9-1 on the season.
“One bad inning all year and the Valley pitcher was firing on all cylinders,” said Mitty Coach Joe Gron on Wednesday afternoon. “We had our chances but it just wasn’t our day. We’re looking forward to tomorrow and the Stampede.”
Prior to the Valley Christian game the senior duo of Puget Sound-bound Savanna Smith and Santa Clara-commit Hannah Edwards had a combined ERA of just over 1.00 and both were hitting over .400 with three home runs and 20 RBI combined.
Leadoff hitter and junior Cal-committed phenom Diamond Holland was hitting .600 prior to Tuesday’s loss with a home run, 15 runs scored and eight stolen bases. Utah-committed junior Savannah Whatley was hitting .520 with a team leading 13 RBI and six stolen bases.
Even though Mitty is coming off a loss, with Sweeney not wanting to stretch May and with Gron having two solid pitchers, this could be Mitty’s year just like it’s been in the past. The Monarchs are in Pool A along with host Livermore, Davis and defending champion but a re-building Freedom under first-year Coach Nanette Sposito.
After winning the title in 2017 Sheldon (4-3) did not play last year but is back and in Pool C this year along with fellow CIF Sac-Joaquin Section power St. Mary’s-Stockton, P2P NCS No. 19 California-San Ramon and defending NCS Division III champion and NCS No. 11 Moreau Catholic-Hayward.
Sheldon Coach Mary Jo Truesdale comes into the Stampede with 631 career coaching wins and that doesn’t include 113 victories she had in Michigan before coming west.
The Huskies have a loss to Whitney and also have losses to Lincoln and an Elk Grove team that has a win over Whitney.
Truesdale has two senior pitchers Kenedi Brown and Grace Owen with Brown (2-1, 0.84 ERA) having the better numbers.
Junior Kianna Pierce (.550 average) leads the team in hitting, freshman Jazlyn Fines (.455 average) is next, and senior Vianna Baron is hitting .375 and leads the team in home runs and RBI with three and six, respectively.
St. Francis-Mountain View (8-1), the Cal-Hi Sports No. 13 and P2P Central Coast Section No. 2 ranked team, comes into the game off an 8-inning 3-2 win on Tuesday over WCAL rival Presentation-San Jose, but they did it with sophomore Lauren Baker in the circle and not Boise State-bound Jordan Schuring, who also did not pitch in the Mitty loss and will not pitch in the Stampede according to sources who could not comment any further on her future status.
The defending CCS Open Division champion Lancers under Coach Mike Oakland are still going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Oakland’s daughter, freshman Jessica Oakland is leading the team in hitting with a .575 average and eight RBI with one home run, fellow freshman Brooke Deppiesse (.440 average, one home run), junior Sophia Roth (.400 average, two home runs), senior Hannah Damore (.375 average, two home runs, eight RBI), and junior Hailey Prahm (.360 average, one home run) are all swinging the bat well.
St. Francis is in Pool D along with defending NCS Division II champion and P2P NCS No. 16 Carondelet-Concord, NCS No. 20 Castro Valley and Dublin.
If St. Francis falters a team to look for to possibly emerge is Carondelet. The Cougars (7-2) opened the season with losses to Clayton Valley-Concord and Concord, and both are good teams, but since then they’ve won seven straight including a 10-0 mercy-shortened win over California. Carondelet Coach Michael Creecy has a solid group of girls led by UC San Diego-committed junior standout pitcher and slugger Gabriela Williams. From the circle she has a 2.41 ERA with 77 strikeouts in 58 innings pitched. At the plate Williams is hitting .583 with four home runs, four doubles, nine RBI and 11 runs scored. Sophomore Jesse Juinio (.423 average, three home runs, eight RBI) and senior Alexandria Schwenger (.556 average, home run, five doubles, 10 runs scored) are two other girls to look for.
As for a potential sleeper team we like Whitney (4-3) if they don’t have to face May on Friday in the early game, although if Sweeney pitches May in the opener on Thursday against Alhambra but not in the evening game against Dougherty Valley, she should be good to go against the girls from the metro Sacramento area.
Whitney has the win over Sheldon and has faced some tough teams from the Sac-Joaquin Section. Coach Mike Mello has three pitchers led by senior Sierra Bedrin (3-1, 2.58 ERA) but the hitting will need to improve if the Wildcats are going to make some noise in the Stampede.
As has been the case the last two years preparation has been made in the event of rain.
“Tomorrow looks fine and Saturday looks okay,” said Stampede Director and Livermore assistant coach Toff Garcia. “If we’re going to get some weather most likely it will be Friday when we could get some delays.”
“However we have access to five fields if we need them,” continued Garcia. “Besides Robertson we have one field at the Livermore practice facility, and two fine fields at the Livermore Girls Softball Association, and both facilities are about a mile away, and all fields have been pre-conditioned and graded and are ready to go.”
Two years ago games were played at alternate fields and unlike last year when the Championship and Stampede brackets were delayed, having five fields in close proximity should be a real asset.
“Any games we can’t get in on Friday in Pool play will be completed early Saturday,” Garcia remarked. “Then the Stampede Flight would be at 2 and 4 o’clock with the Championship Flight at 6 and 8. The goal is to be at Robertson on Saturday but we will use the other fields if necessary.
For Pool play, Flight bracket schedules, and scores each day go to lhsstampede.com
