Balers score winning run with one out in the bottom of the
seventh
A fairytale ending for one team and unexplainable heartache for the other – again.
As a sophomore, in 2009, Jessica Steigelman’s triple propelled the San Benito softball team to a 4-3 victory over Gilroy for the Balers’ fourth straight section title.
She must have liked that feeling.
Two years later, Steigelman, now a senior, again came through in crunch time, singling home the game-winner in the bottom of the seventh to lift the No. 1-seeded Balers to a 3-2 victory over No. 3 Gilroy in the Central Coast Section Division I championship game at PAL Stadium in San Jose Saturday – and to the team’s sixth straight CCS title.
“I just knew that I needed to go up there and relax,” Steigelman said. “I wanted to get it done for my team.”
The familiarity between the two high-quality programs gave the thrilling finish a sense of inevitability. In the teams’ previous five encounters, dating back to the 2009 title game, the Balers eked out wins by a combined six runs, including the two regular-season matchups, 4-2 and 2-1.
This latest installment of the always rousing rivalry lived up to the deserved hype – and then some.
“This is the best game we played all year,” GHS senior Elaina Vasquez said. “Our goal was to come here and win it. We were so close and it just sucks that it had to end this way. But I’m proud of the way we played.”
The Balers kept two streaks in tact Saturday, tightening their grasp on the section with their sixth consecutive championship and making it 17 in a row over the Mustangs.
In the other dugout, like a broken record, stuck on the same sad song, for the third time in four years, the Mustangs’ season came crashing down in the finals against their rivals.
“This is the worst,” GHS manager Julie Berggren said. “I’d rather lose to 1,000 other teams than (San Benito) today.”
Steigelman’s blast, which one-hopped the centerfield fence, but goes down in the books as a single, plated Brittany Sparrer, who re-entered the ball game after pinch-hitter Taylor Fabing led off the frame with a single.
“It’s kind of a storybook ending. Jessica struck out twice earlier in the day,” Balers manager Scott Smith said. “I thought about maybe pinch-hitting for her, but then I thought, ‘No, she’s a senior. I can’t do that.’ She crushed it.”
The Mustangs chose to walk Brittney Hoff to load the bases to get to clean-up hitter Jessica Vest, who subsequently popped up to pitcher Sarah Lorraine Lira for the second out of the inning, leaving the game’s outcome in Steigelman’s hands.
And she delivered.
“I figured if we didn’t do it here in the bottom of the seventh it was going to be a tough road,” Smith said.
Gilroy drew first blood off of Balers’ starter Paige Miguel in the top of the first, taking a 1-0 lead on a RBI single from Lira, scoring Stephanie Rodriguez, who reached on an infield hit.
“We jumped on them right away,” Berggren said. “I think that scared them a little bit.”
The Balers countered in their half of the first, cashing in on a lead-off walk to Samantha Puentes. Jessica Vest deposited a two-out infield single, which was nearly caught on a Rodriguez diving attempt, to plate Puentes from third for the equalizer.
San Benito touched up Lira for the second run with a Brittani Newman RBI double, putting the Balers up 2-1, where it stood until the fifth.
As she did in the Mustangs’ 1-0 semifinals victory, freshman Holly Lam led off the frame with a loud triple to the wall, which also chased Miguel from the game, giving way to sophomore hurler Megan Sabbatini. One batter later, Elaina Vasquez poked a single to left, tying matters at 2-2. Sabbatini averted further damage in the inning, firing a strikeout and inducing a fly out to strand runners on first and second.
After a relatively quiet sixth inning, Lam worked a lead-off walk, though Sabbatini retired the next three batters to escape the danger.
“That was huge for us to get out of that inning,” Smith said.
The Balers wrap up its season with a 29-1 record, the lone loss coming out of the state of California at a tournament in Las Vegas. The Mustangs, meanwhile, conclude the year at 25-5.
“It’s been such a fun season,” Berggren said. “We said this is where we wanted to be. Of course we wanted the outcome to be different. We were so close.
