One more out was all Gilroy High needed to get out of the first
inning.
One more out was all Gilroy High needed to get out of the first inning.
Melinda Ortiz had just struck out the first two batters she faced, and one more Presentation Panther dispatched would have put the Mustangs up to bat in the top of the second with the game still scoreless. Instead, the inning ended with Gilroy in a three-run hole.
That was the difference.
Ortiz shut it down from there, but the Mustangs’ offense couldn’t mount a comeback. The closest Gilroy came was when Jasmine Perez smacked a two-out triple. But even when freshman Sarah Lira followed by stepping up to the plate and cranking a shot to deep right-center field, the ball’s flight fell just short of the fence and into the fielder’s mitt, as if foreshadowing that Gilroy’s hoped for outcome was not be.
The result was a 3-0 defeat, the second loss this season for Gilroy (15-2), which has only been beaten by Presentation (12-0).
“Melinda pitched really well at the beginning of the game (but) they scored three runs and that was it,” Gilroy assistant coach Arnold Tellez said. “She shut them out the rest of the game. Melinda pitched really good. It was just that one inning.”
Presentation got batters on base later in the game but Gilroy’s defense only bent, refusing to break. The Panthers finished with a 6-2 advantage in hits. Gilroy was the only team to record an error with one.
“We did play better,” Tellez said when referring to the previous meeting between the two teams, a 10-0 victory for Presentation. “Defensively we played strong.”
While the defeat sent the Mustangs out of the Circle of Champions tournament being held in Salinas, Tellez said the girls did a good job of bouncing back in practice Monday as they prepared for the Tri-County Athletic League opener at Alvarez today at 4:30 p.m.
“I thought they bounced back pretty good,” he said. “[Monday’s] practice was really good and they’re gearing up for league.”
