Hillsdale has one of the youngest softball teams around with only one senior and two juniors. All that youth is good in some ways but may have also contributed to mistakes made in a 2-1 loss to Mt. Pleasant on Thursday night.
The setback came in the Central Coast Section Division II semifinals at PAL Stadium. Mt. Pleasant will now meet Gilroy in the title game at 3 p.m. Saturday at PAL.
Hillsdale made five errors in the field and two big base-running mistakes in falling to the Cardinals.
"I'm looking forward to the future, but you've got to come to play. We didn't really come to play," Hillsdale coach Randy Matheany said. "You have to hand it to the other team; they outplayed us.
"It's disappointing. We have young pitchers and I expect those girls to get hit. But we didn't make plays. You have to play a good game at this level and we played an average game. But it wasn't because we weren't trying. This is a big stage."
Mt. Pleasant shined the brightest under the prime-time lights.
The Cardinals zipped out of the gate with two unearned runs in the first inning off Tori Pierucci. Hillsdale made two infield errors in the frame and Mt. Pleasant got run-scoring singles from Ernestina Carrillo and Monalisa Yanez.
Whippet-quick Mt. Pleasant put pressure on the Knights with its speed.
"I think you just need to field it cleanly and do your step-step throw," said Matheany, downplaying the quickness factor.
Then junior pitcher Celine Alcantara took over for Mt. Pleasant, blanking Hillsdale until the sixth inning. Alcantara allowed just four hits over seven innings.
But Hillsdale seemed poised to tie the game in the sixth when Meagan Wells and Lauren Quirke hit consecutive, one-out triples, making the score 2-1. But Alcantara focused and retired the final two batters of the inning on a short fly ball to center field and a groundout.
"I only have one pitcher and Celine has been carrying us all year," Cardinals coach Manuel Resendez said. "Without her I have nothing."
Added Alcantara: "I think I did OK, but I could have done better because my arm is kind of sore. But I needed to do it for my team. I just needed to keep pitching through it, until the end."
Hillsdale threatened again the in seventh with Kelli Miller and relief pitcher Eryn McCoy singling to start the inning. But the Knights handed Mt. Pleasant an out with a base-running mistake and then Alcantara took care of the rest.
"I couldn't ask for a better team behind me," Alcantara said. "They're really supportive and I love them all."
Yanez led Mt. Pleasant (22-5) with two hits and a run batted in.
Hillsdale (20-9) will lose center fielder Courtney Tyler to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next season. Tyler made what has to be one of the great throws of the prep softball season in the fourth inning to nail a runner at the plate. But the Knights return everyone else including Pierucci, a sophomore, and McCoy, a freshman.
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John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat
