The only thing able to stop the Gilroy 11-year-old girls
Softball All-Stars this summer was the 10-run mercy rule.
Gilroy – The only thing able to stop the Gilroy 11-year-old girls Softball All-Stars this summer was the 10-run mercy rule.
After breezing by the competition in sectionals, the Gilroy girls won all three of their following games to take the California state title Monday.
Facing Manteca in the championship, Gilroy manager DJ Simpson thought her team would be in for quite a contest.
“This team, we really thought we were going to see something,” Simpson said.
Pleasantly for Gilroy, all the team saw was its lead increase after the first inning. The team won 12-1.
Kristen Dennis started off the bottom of the first with a single and Jenae Estrada walked to put two runners aboard. Shortly after, Mariza Rodriguez belted a shot to center field for a single that scored both runners.
“Those two have jet speed,” Simpson said, referring to the one-two punch of Dennis and Estrada. “They never get out because they beat out everything.”
The next inning brought even more offensive fireworks as seven runners crossed home plate, capped off by a stand-up triple by Adrianna Ortega.
“We came up in the bottom of the second and showed no mercy,” Simpson said. “A lot of the girls kept on walking due to patience in the batter’s box.”
Gilroy’s pitcher for that game, Angelica Carrillo, had little patience for getting batters out, however, as she only gave up one run and struck out seven.
The swing of the tournament came in the fourth and final inning when Michaela Zertuche hit a “steak and potatoes” pitch (a fat pitch right down the middle) for a home run to left field.
“It’s probably the furthest I’ve ever seen a girl this age hit (a ball),” Simpson said. “It was probably forty-five feet over the left fielder. It shocked everybody, not me, but everybody else. The ball almost rolled into the parking lot.”
The win came after two other dominating performances in the tournament.
Gilroy beat Clayton Valley in the semifinals and a team called Airport District 3 in the first round, each by a score of 16-2.
Raeanna Covarrubias was the ace against CV as she struck out eight batters in the game and also had a double. Other stand out performances in that contest included singles by Brianna Perez and a double by Cristyn Simpson .
Daniella Sandoval also got high praise from her manager for her strong performances.
By winning games with such ease, Gilroy did have to tone back its level of play at times.
“We stopped stealing, stopped taking passed balls, girls ended up having to bunt to get the game over,” Simpson said. “(The other teams’ coaches) were thankful and said we had a lot of class with our coaching and players to respect the game enough and end it.”
Without the help of players’ parents and her assistant coaches (Gene “Pops” Carlisle and Gavilan coach Nikki DeQuinn) though, Simpson said there is no way this season could have been such a success.
“We have such great girls, they have so much respect for others and the game and it definitely comes from the parents,” Simpson said.
