With a 12-2 four-inning rout of Utah Thursday afternoon, the
Gilroy Little League Majors All-Stars emphatically sealed their
spot in Saturday’s Western Regional semifinals.
Gilroy – With a 12-2 four-inning rout of Utah Thursday afternoon, the Gilroy Little League Majors All-Stars emphatically sealed their spot in Saturday’s Western Regional semifinals.
The 11- and 12-year-olds went 3-1 in pool play in the Southwest division, earning the No. 2 seed in the pool behind Southern California’s Crescenta Valley. The top two seeds of each pool – Northwest and Southwest – move on to the semifinals.
Now Gilroy must face Northwest division champ Marysville of Washington state at 11am Saturday for a shot at the regional championship game – and a chance to represent the West in the Little League Softball World Series in Portland next week.
In Thursday’s game, visiting Utah scored its only two runs in the top of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. But the Gilroy bats came alive and produced two five-run innings, the second and the third, that left Utah (1-3 in pool play) in the dust for the rest of the game.
Holding Utah to two runs on the mound for Gilroy was starter Danielle Kinoshita, who allowed just one walk and two hits in all four innings.
“We did really good hitting today,” said Kinoshita, who fanned three batters. “We almost had a homer and we had a lot of stolen bases.”
Gilroy manager Dennis Castro continues to be happy with his team’s offense.
“Utah’s a good team,” Castro said. “I think what (this win) shows now is that since the first game, we’re starting to turn it around and hit way we hit.”
The Northern California representives dropped their first game 5-4 to Southern California on Monday despite holding a lead up to the final inning.
In the second inning of the win over Utah Thursday, Gilroy batted around the order – and then some. Adrianna Osuna had two hits in the inning while Alissa Castro, Brenna O’Neill and Lindsay Holt all had hits to give the Garlic City squad a 6-2 lead at the end of two.
In the bottom of the third, Gilroy piled on another five runs. The highlight of the inning came with the bases loaded. O’Neill, who was celebrating her 13th birthday, came to the plate and ripped a two-run double, scoring Dani Hemeon and Alissa Castro, who both walked to get aboard. Michelle Sosa, who had been hit by a pitch, wound up on third and went on to score.
O’Neill said she and her team were definitely jolted by their first All-Star season loss to Southern California Monday.
“I didn’t think (the tournament) was going to be like that. I thought it was going to have less hard teams,” O’Neill said. “When we were beat the first time, we were like ‘Whoa, people can beat us!’ But we’ve stepped it up.”
And the girls will have to continue to step it up for Saturday’s game against Washington.
“They’re a very good team,” Dennis Castro said. “They play a lot of short game, a lot of bunting and slapping.”
Castro added that Washington and Southern California are fairly equal teams, as are all four of the squads that made it into the semifinals.
“I believe we’re all pretty comparable,” he said. “It just all depends on who is going to jump out first, have the least amount of errors and stuff like that.”
Castro will send his No. 1 starter Samantha Parraz to the mound for Saturday’s game.
Said Parraz about being the starter: “I feel good. I think I can do it.”
“We’ve been watching them,” she added. “We just have to play our game, our A-game.”
And her strategy?
“Just pitch away from them and make sure they can’t get to the ball.”
Today, after a 10am practice, Castro is taking the team to Alpenrose Field in Portland, only a 20-minute car ride from Vancouver, Wash. to get a sneak peak at the site of next week’s World Series.
He hopes the trip will motivate the team and give them a little more perspective on the upcoming weekend’s games.
“(I just want) to give them a taste of what they’ll be playing for,” Castro said. “To dangle that carrot in front of them and say ‘If you want it, go get it.”
