Five runs in the first and in the fifth propelled Christopher to the next round of the Central Coast Section Division II playoffs.
The Cougars downed St. Ignatius 10-7, surviving a late run by the Wildcats to set a date with Pioneer and phenom pitcher Holly Acevedo.
Julie Santiago led the charge, going 3-4 scoring two runs and driving in one.
Haley Berube drove in three going 2-4 with Nikki Villanueva driving in a pair going 1-4.
Christopher did a good job at answering St. Ignatius’ runs in the game with big innings of its won.
The Wildcats opened the game scoring three runs after leading off with a pair of singles and loading the bases with one out on an error at short.
They cleared the bases with a triple to go up 3-0.
Only Toni Martinez got things rolling with the first of three walks in the inning.
Santiago followed with a double and scored on a single from Berube.
Michaela Decker and Kalena Paredes followed with walks and Kylie Huddleston reaching safely to drive them both in ahead of Amanda Bombino hitting an RBI single to close out the inning.
That’s where things stood until the fifth when a pair of errors led to two runs to pull St. Ignatius even.
Again Christopher answered.
A walk, four singles and an error allowed Christopher to send 10 to the plate in the inning and take a 10-5 lead.
Decker got things rolling with a lead off walk and Paredes followed with a single before Huddleson reached on an error.
Villanueva followed with a one out single.
Santiago, Berube and Morgan England then hit consecutive singles to once again bust the game open.
Christopher then survived a pair of errors that led to two runs as Gabbi Howard finished her complete game and sent Christopher on.
Now the hard part begins.
Christopher is set to travel to Willow Glen High School to face No. 1 seed Pioneer 2 p.m. Saturday.
The Mustangs are 23-2 with Acevedo to in the circle sporting a 22-2 record giving up five earned runs with 290 strikeouts against 14 walks.
