LIVERMORE, Calif. – The St. Francis-Mountain View girls came into Livermore Stampede as the favorite to win the top softball tournament in Northern California, and although head coach Mike Oakland and his Lancers only played one game on the first day of action, the No. 3 team in the Cal-Hi Sports rankings showed just why they deserve top billing after an impressive 14-2 run-rule, five inning victory over Freedom-Oakley.
St. Francis (11-1) banged out and impressive 19 hits in five innings, and two pitchers, sophomore Kate Munnerlyn and junior Chloe Cummings, combined for a three-hitter with six strikeouts and no walks.
There was no question St. Francis had its hitting shoes on as eight girls had two or more hits. Minnesota-bound Jessica Oakland was 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, three RBI and two runs scored. University of San Diego-committed junior leadoff hitter Alexis O’Gorman was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored. Georgetown-signed senior Claire Turner was 2-for-2 with a walk, three RBI and a run scored, Boston University-committed senior Brooke Deppiesse had two hits including a double and two RBI, and junior Carly Cummings and sophomore Shannon Keighran each had two hits and scored twice.
Besides coming on for Munnerlyn to close out the last two innings in relief, junior Chloe Cummings had two hits and scored twice. Last but not least was Washington-bound big bopper Sydney Stewart with two hits and a walk with a run scored. Yet one last shout out for her RBI single goes to senior Ella Milante.
One thing St. Francis showed against Freedom that was also evident in the Lancers third-place finish at the Michelle Carew Classic last weekend in Orange County, is the whole batting order, and even girls off the bench, can put a charge in the yellow ball.
St. Francis will now play two Pool B games on Friday afternoon against Castro Valley and Carondelet-Concord.
Like St. Francis host and Cal-Hi Sports No. 20 ranked Livermore (10-1-1) only played one game on the first day of the Stampede but unlike the Lancers the Cowboys struggled a bit at the plate against Liberty-Brentwood but still came away with a 2-0 victory behind a solid pitching performance by Taylor Rodriguez. The Dominican University-bound senior brought out the lasso and tossed a three-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts and one base on balls.
Livermore only had six hits but three of them came from junior Alizabeth Ruiz. She also had the lone RBI with the second run unearned. Both runs came in the bottom of the first inning with Rodriguez taking care of business in the circle from that point on.
The Cowboys girls are now a Pool A big favorite with games against Monte Vista-Danville and Sheldon-Sacramento, although Sheldon did not play on Thursday and despite not being in the state rankings head coach Mary Jo Truesdale has always been tough at the Stampede. A disadvantage for Sheldon will be they will be playing Livermore at 5 p.m. after playing Monte Vista at 11 a.m. and then Liberty at 1 p.m., and that will be tough on the Huskies pitching.
Heritage-Brentwood (8-1-1) took a big step toward reversing some early adversity with two big wins that puts the Pats in a position to close out Pool C with a 3-0 record and move on to Saturday’s Championship Flight. Standing in the way of Cal-Hi Sports No. 22 Heritage is No. 15 Granada, but it should be noted that one of the Pats two wins on Thursday was an 8-0 run-rule five-inning victory over a Benicia team coming off a 3-2 win over Granada.
Cal-bound senior star Tianna Bell hit a three-run home run in the Benicia win and fellow senior Alexandra Cutonilli had two hits and drove in two runs,
Combined with what the duo did in the Patriots 14-2 run-rule, five-inning win over Dublin, Cutonilli, who hit two home runs against Dublin, had seven RBI in the two games and Bell drove in four.
In softball pitching is what separates great teams from good ones and Heritage has had its challenges this season. Boise State-bound senior Kasey Aguinaga did pitch the first four games, including a 0-0 season-opening tie at the Nevada Reed-Sparks tournament in which she gave up a hit and struck out eight against Nevada Douglas-Minden, but she suffered an injury and did not pitch in the title-game 4-2 loss to Cal-Hi Sports No. 21 Sutter. Aguinaga tried to go against Arroyo-San Leandro after returning from Nevada but she wasn’t right and head coach Ron Rivers took her out and she has been out ever since.
That meant the pitching duties went to senior Alyssa Soares. She was the starter last season but ended up missing most of the season. It appears she has rounded into shape after tossing back-to-back two-hitters on Thursday.
According to Rivers his former ace will be back in action next week and with two options in the circle couple with the Heritage hitting, Rivers and his Pats may make some real noise even if they can’t pull off winning the Stampede with one arm, something that has proven hard to accomplish.
There were two upsets on the first day of the Stampede and both came after both Cal-Hi Sports No. 9 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose and No. 15 Granada-Livermore won its first game.
One of the upsets set up Whitney-Rocklin (6-6) as a possible dark horse spoiler and the Pool D favorite. After Cal-Hi Sports No. 9 Archbishop Mitty-San Jose scored 10 straight runs after a 1-0 first-inning deficit in a run-ruled 10-1 victory over College Park-Pleasant Hill, they ran into Whitney and the Wildcats took a 5-0 lead after two innings before holding on in a timed out six-inning 5-2 upset victory.
Sophomore Hannah Duncan scattered four hits and really didn’t have any problems until the sixth inning when Mitty scored its two runs and at one point had the tying run at the plate.
The big bat for the Lancers came from sophomore Mya Flindt. She drove in four runs and scored once in the first two innings. Senior Jilly Jochims drove in the other run.
To win Pool D and advance to the Championship Flight, Mitty (14-2) will need to win its game against Foothill-Pleasanton and get help from Whitney’s opponents, College Park and Foothill.
It was looking like Granada would be facing off for first place in Pool C on Friday with Heritage may very well still take place, but the Matadors won’t be unblemished. After an 8-0 victory over Dublin got them to 12-0 and what is believed to be the best start in school history, the upset bug bit and Granada fell 3-2 to the Benicia team Heritage beat 8-0.
Look for a Day 2 Roundup before we head into Saturday’s Championship Flight.
