OAKLEY, CALIF.—- Amador Valley pitcher Danielle Williams experienced winning an NCS championship in her first year of high school.
Now as a senior, she was the key player in the Dons' semifinal victory that sealed their ticket to the NCS Division I championship, where they will face EBAL rival Foothill for the fourth time this season.
Williams’ performance was similar to that of a power outage, lights out. The Northwestern-bound pitcher threw a complete game shutout in Amador Valley’s 3-0 victory over Freedom. She recorded 15 strikeouts, and at one point of the game had six consecutive strikeouts. Up until the sixth inning, she had at least two strikeouts per inning of work. She finished the game off by striking out the side.
“I just knew my team was behind me,” Williams said. “I threw what coach was calling, I trusted her with what she was doing.”
Amador Valley provided some runs for Williams to work with early in the game.
After an Allyson Kim double, Maddie Hildebrand drove in Kim on a two-out RBI single in the top of the second inning. Williams followed it up with a shutdown inning for the Dons.
In the next inning, Williams helped her own cause, as she blasted a solo home run to center field to extend Amador Valley’s lead to 2-0. Later in the inning, Julia Camello hit a routine grounder, but Freedom’s defense threw away the ball, which would have ended the inning for the Falcons. Instead, Camello was able to advance to second base.
Kim made Freedom regret that play, as in the next at bat she knocked in Camello to have the Dons up 3-0 in the top of the third inning.
“The little mistakes matter in softball, and we can’t have those,” said Freedom head coach Brook Russo.
Freedom’s defense continued to struggle, as in the top of the fourth they committed yet another error, but settled down as they converted two similar double plays, both of which ended innings.
In the NCS championship, the Dons will be looking for redemption against Foothill, who defeated Heritage 2-0 in the other Division I semifinal. Amador Valley won the first meeting this year, 1-0, but Foothill won the last two, including an 8-0 defeat in the EBAL tournament championship game.
“The kinds were pumped up for this game, and are pumped up for the next game,” Amador Valley head coach Teresa Brochard said. “I think we’ve gotten momentum over the next couple of games, and now we’re dialed in.”