After dropping their opener in the Little League Softball
Western Regional on Sunday, the Gilroy Majors All-Stars needed a
win on Monday.
The Garlic City girls came through.
Vancouver, Wash. – After dropping their opener in the Little League Softball Western Regional on Sunday, the Gilroy Majors All-Stars needed a win on Monday.
The Garlic City girls came through.
Gilroy’s chances of emerging from the Southwest pool for a shot at the Little League World Series took a hit with a 5-4 loss to Southern California champion Crescenta Valley on Sunday. Trailing 3-0 in the first inning to the Arizona state champion, Gilroy’s tournament life was on the line Monday afternoon.
But a Brenna O’Neill double that scored Stephanie Rodriguez and Michelle Sosa got things started for the Northern California champs, who went on to beat Arizona 9-6 and go into today’s game with Nevada 1-1 in pool play.
“Brenna O’Neill had the key hit that got everything started,” said Gilroy manager Dennis Castro. “After that, the girls just started swinging the bats the way they know how.”
Sunday’s loss to a Southern California team which now looks to have a clear path to the regional championship game was a bitter one to swallow. Heading into the fifth inning, Gilroy held a 4-1 lead. But Southern California rallied and scored four runs in the fifth to win the game.
Gilroy struck first when Alissa Castro led the game off by reaching base on an error and later scored on Melanie Morelos’ RBI single. Crescenta Valley answered in their half of the first to make it 1-1. Gilroy proceeded to get runners on in each of the next three innings, but failed to score.
In the top of the fifth, the Northern California champs struck.
Gilroy pushed across three runs on two hits, an error and two walks. Castro reached base on an error to lead things off. Sosa bunted her over to third. O’Neill walked and Lindsay Holt had one of her two singles of the game to knock in Castro. Morelos followed with another RBI single. Consecutive walks to Adrianna Osuna and Sam Parraz pushed across another run. With one out and the bases loaded, however, the Gilroy rally ended with a double play.
In the bottom of the fifth, trailing 4-1, Crescenta Valley scored four runs to take a 5-4 lead on three hits, an error and a walk. Gilroy went
down in order in the top of the sixth to end the game.
Parraz pitched the entire game and kept the Southern California champs off balance the entire game, giving up two earned runs, striking out five and walking three.
Southern California had already played a game – beating Arizona 9-8 Saturday – and Castro said that extra game may have been a factor in Gilroy’s loss.
“The girls were extremely nervous,” he said. “It was SoCal’s second game and we needed to get over the fear of having an important game on this field. Hopefully they got that out of their system.”
It took until the third inning of their second game for the girls to relax.
After O’Neill’s double brought her team within a run of Arizona, the Gilroy bats really began to heat up. Gilroy broke the game open in the fourth inning, scoring six runs. A double by Osuna, singles by Castro and Sosa, three walks and one Arizona error resulted in a huge inning for Gilroy, which had an 8-3 lead after 3 1/2 innings. The Garlic City squad added another run in the top of the sixth on hits by Castro, Holt and Morelos to push the lead to 9-3. Arizona answered back in the bottom of the sixth to score three runs with two outs, but the rally fell short and Gilroy emerged with a 9-6 win.
Starter Danielle Kinoshita went the distance on Monday, giving up three earned runs while striking out six and walking five. Castro went 2-4 and Morelos went 2-2, while O’Neill, Sosa, Osuna and Holt also had hits.
Gilroy will now finish out its pool play with a game against Nevada today at 3:30pm and a game against Utah on Thursday. With its win over Arizona, Gilroy can ensure itself a place in the championship round this weekend with wins in the final two games.
