Aside from one game Gilroy High’s varsity softball team would
like to forget, the Mustangs have been mowing down every opponent
it has seen to begin the season. That trend continued Tuesday,
although by a smaller margin than usual, as Gilroy defeated the
Live Oak Acorns 2-1 in Morgan Hill.
Aside from one game Gilroy High’s varsity softball team would like to forget, the Mustangs have been mowing down every opponent it has seen to begin the season.
That trend continued Tuesday, although by a smaller margin than usual, as Gilroy defeated the Live Oak Acorns 2-1 in Morgan Hill.
Brittany Balanesi’s two-run home run gave the visitors the victory, the twelfth this season for the Mustangs to just one defeat.
Following a double by Sarah Lira, Balanesi crushed a pitch flush, providing one of only four hits on the day by Gilroy. Balanesi also had a single as did Jasmine Perez.
Melinda Ortiz got the win for the Mustangs, pitching five scoreless innings with six strikeouts and allowing only one hit. Ashley Harrington came on to get the save in the bottom of the seventh, allowing a hit but striking out two batters.
“They’re a good team and I think we were a little flat,” Gilroy coach Catherine Hallada said. “We came out and were kind of just going through the routine.”
Luckily for Gilroy, the team’s ace had her good stuff.
“Mo’ did a really great job. She held her own on the mound,” Hallada said.
Coming out slow could have been due to playing three games in two days, Friday and Saturday.
Playing in the first weekend of the Circle of Champions tournament being held at the Salinas Sports Complex, Gilroy topped Monterey (6-4), Harbor (10-0) and Westmont (14-2).
“It was a very good weekend,” Hallada said. “The girls were playing together.”
A win over Monterey on Friday, in which Gilroy scored five of its six runs in the top of the fifth inning, helped propel the team over the next two contests.
Alyssa Castro and Lira both had triples against Harbor later in the day, and Ashley Gamboa, Stephanie Rodriguez and Harrington all had doubles, as every single player on the roster either had a hit or scored a run in the 10-0 win. Gilroy ended up with a 10-2 advantage in hits.
As if the Mustangs needed motivation in their final game of the weekend, an umpire provided fuel for the fire Saturday night when he originally objected to Gilroy’s players taking the field against Westmont due to GHS’ batting helmets having safety labels worn to the point of being unreadable. The objection, comparable to police knocking on one’s door when the tag is removed from a mattress, was quickly overruled and the game was played. The result was a 14-2 thrashing.
“The girls saw us (coaches) getting upset and we basically told the girls, ‘you know what, let’s take it to them,’ ” Hallada said.
“In a weird way they did (motivate us). It got the girls pumped up. They were on fire over the weekend – lots of hits and lots of scoring.”
The Mustangs will now try to extend their four-game winning streak as they play Wednesday at 3:45 p.m. at St. Francis before going back to Salinas Saturday at 11 a.m. to play Presentation, the only team to beat Gilroy this season, in a single-elimination quarterfinal contest in the Circle of Champions tournament.
