Gilroy
– It turned out Katie Arao was batting for a lot more than a
steak dinner.
With Gavilan up 6-3 on Chabot in the bottom of the sixth inning,
Arao came to the plate with two outs, Kristina Pena on second and
Megan Smart on third.
Gilroy – It turned out Katie Arao was batting for a lot more than a steak dinner.
With Gavilan up 6-3 on Chabot in the bottom of the sixth inning, Arao came to the plate with two outs, Kristina Pena on second and Megan Smart on third.
“Don’t you like steak?” shouted Lady Rams coach Tim Kenworthy from the dugout when the count went to 0-2 on Arao, a reference to an arrangement for dinner after Gavilan wins.
“I love steak,” mumbled Arao, just seconds before she smacked the next pitch over the Chabot center fielder’s head to drive in Pena and Smart, then raced to the plate for a home run that made the score a comfortable 9-3 in favor of Gavilan.
“I’ve been in a slump,” said Arao, “But all my friends from the baseball team were here saying, ‘You can do it, you can do it,’ so I think I was down in an 0-2 count, and one pitch – one pitch is all it takes.”
Arao’s second homer of the season would turn out to mean a lot more than dinner.
Gavilan pitcher Courtney Colianna, on in relief of starter Destinee Powers, got two outs while giving up a run in the top of the seventh. That’s when the trouble started.
Chabot embarked upon a furious rally, helped along by several Gavilan errors, that brought the score to 9-7. With the bases loaded and the go-ahead run on first, Colianna faced a make or break situation against a Chabot team that was hitting her hard and often.
But it was the Lady Rams’ night – the late-starting game was the first under the lights this season – and it was fitting that Colianna snared a comeback bullet to end the Chabot threat and seal the win for Gavilan.
