Kirkland, Wash.
Though its chances of making it past pool play in the World Series may be over, the Gilroy Junior All Stars softball team isn’t hanging its head.
Gilroy was bested 14-1 by the Latin America region champion — Softbol Fermenil Mexcali Little League from Mexicali Baja California, Mexico — Wednesday, closing the door on the team’s dreams of making it to the quarterfinals. Despite the team not achieving its goal of at least finishing fifth in the tournament, it did finally accomplish the goal of making it to the World Series — something that was three years in the making.
“I told them ‘The fact that you guys made it here is huge’,” Coach Nelson Villanueva said. “We’re fortunate. Four thousand teams out there wish they were in our position.”
Luck has not been on Gilroy’s side since winning the West. The team has been plagued with injuries and illness, forcing it to shuffle its lineup and shift girls to new positions. A little wear and tear is to be expected after Gilroy played eight games in six days in the Western Regional tournament, but the team wasn’t prepared for anything like this.
“The overall chemistry of what we’ve been riding out to get here isn’t there,” Villanueva said. “The three coaches are getting together going ‘What do we do now? We’ve still got to go out there in play’.”
Gilroy opened the World Series tournament with a 14-6 loss to West Cumberland, N.J., the East champions, Sunday. Monday’s contest against the Europe and Africa champs from Emilia, Italy was closer, but still resulted in a 2-1 loss. Gilroy scored a pair of runs late against its opponent from the Southwest —Columbus, Texas — but it wouldn’t be enough to save the team from an 8-3 defeat.
“After last night’s (Tuesday’s) game, the door was still open for us,” Villanueva said. “All we had to do was win against Mexico and we advanced. We wanted the ticket to the big dance, we just didn’t show up to dance yet.”
Gilroy still has a chance to get a win in the tournament and finish ninth in the world when they take on Canada at 11 a.m. Friday. Gilroy hopes a couple days of rest will help the team fare better so it can leave Washington with a win and do its hometown proud.
“A lot of the girls are here saying that they wanted a better showing for Gilroy — this is not the way we play softball,” Villanueva said. “The chemistry is just not the same as it was in Tucson, it’s like a completely different team. Sometimes life throws you a curveball and you just have to go with it.”
