Some losses are so painful you have to laugh to keep from
crying.
So, sitting on a dirt path next to a field in which the dreams
of Gilroy softball had just come crashing down minutes earlier,
several coaches and players chuckled and cracked a few smiles when
talking about their season and all that had been accomplished.
Those smiles took just seconds to become pained, though, as the
realization that a Central Coast Section title had slipped through
the Mustangs’ grasp for a second straight season, to the same team
no less.
SAN JOSE – Some losses are so painful you have to laugh to keep from crying.
So, sitting on a dirt path next to a field in which the dreams of Gilroy softball had just come crashing down minutes earlier, several coaches and players chuckled and cracked a few smiles when talking about their season and all that had been accomplished.
Those smiles took just seconds to become pained, though, as the realization that a Central Coast Section title had slipped through the Mustangs’ grasp for a second straight season, to the same team no less.
“We had it,” Gilroy senior pitcher Ashley Harrington said. “It was our game.”
Facing rival Hollister under the hot morning sun Saturday at PAL Stadium in San Jose, Gilroy led 3-1, needing just four more outs to record the second CCS championship in school history.
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, missed opportunities to record the final out of the sixth inning led to a bases-clearing triple by Jessica Steigelman, giving Hollister a one-run lead and eventually the game.
Sam Parraz, pitching in relief for Gilroy, got the first two batters of the bottom of the sixth out before allowing base hits to Jessica Vest and Marissa Adame, putting runners on first and second. Hollister’s Bre Fata then hit a soft grounder to third baseman Stephanie Rodriguez, who attempted to get the force play at third rather than making the throw to first. Vest beat Rodriguez to the bag, extending the inning and setting up Steigelman.
“I asked [Steigelman] how she wanted to remember her last at-bat at CCS,” Hollister manager Scott Smith said. “Nervous and scared, or just having fun?”
Steigelman chose the latter option at the Mustangs’ expense.
Hollister pitcher Marissa Ibarra allowed a hit to Emily Castro to start the top of the seventh, but the next three Gilroy at-bats resulted in outs to end the game.
“I’m never 100 percent confident with [Hollister], but I thought we had it,” Gilroy manager Catherine Hallada said. “Things like that happen. Nerves sometimes get to you.”
For the first five innings of the game, though, Gilroy was the cooler, more confident club. Harrington allowed just one run in 3.1 innings and Parraz permitted just one hit entering the sixth.
Senior centerfielder Jasmine Perez had two big at-bats to account for all of the Mustangs’ three runs. She ripped a two-out single in the third to score Lindsay Holt and Rodriguez, giving Gilroy a 2-0 lead. Perez then hit a home run in the top of the sixth to make it 3-1.
“After that hit, I knew we had the game,” Perez said of her blast over the left field fence. “I figured we had it won.”
Instead, Hollister earned its fourth consecutive CCS crown and second title in a row over the Mustangs.
The Lady Balers’ Marissa Ibarra pitched and won all four of those CCS championship victories, as well Gilroy’s four straight season-ending losses in the playoffs dating back to 2006. The Mustangs fell 8-3 to the Lady Balers in last year’s championship, making this season’s matchup even more intense.
“We didn’t expect them to lay down for us,” Ibarra said. “We expected it to be a close game.”
Entering the playoffs, however, few would have expected another matchup between the Lady Balers and the Mustangs. Seeded eighth to start the postseason, Gilroy was barely able to qualify with a 13-12-1 record. Meanwhile, Hollister finished the regular season 24-4 and seeded third.
The Mustangs went on to beat No. 9 Evergreen Valley 3-0 in the first round, top-seeded Carlmont 5-3 in the quarterfinals and then North Salinas 7-6 in a 10-inning classic, creating a sense of destiny by the time the title game was at hand.
“I was shocked,” Perez said. “I figured we weren’t going to make CCS.”
But the letdown of another championship loss left some Gilroy players with mixed feelings about how far they had come and just how close they fell short.
“We all played our hardest and left it on the field,” Harrington said. “We came a lot farther than anybody thought we would.”
She then took a second before adding, “It always goes there way, somehow. We’ll get them one day. One day it will be our turn.”
