With the regular season finish line fast approaching, the chase for the Monterey Bay League crown in softball is down to a two-horse race. And the two teams are neck and neck as they jockey for the top position.
Two-time defending MBL titleholder Monterey High avenged its lone league loss with an 8-5 victory over host Christopher in, for all intents and purposes, a de-facto league championship tilt Tuesday in Gilroy.
“This was basically a league championship in April,” Monterey manager Phil Santora said. “We knew we had to go through Christopher to get a piece, and the girls came to play today.”
As it stands, both clubs now have one loss – a blemish courtesy of the other – and own a one-game edge over third-place North Monterey County (15-5 overall, 6-2 MBL.) The Cougars (14-6 overall, 7-1 MBL) have four league games left to be decided with the Toreadores (12-5 overall, 6-1 MBL) have five MBL meetings to attend to.
“They had to beat us. We came in relaxed. I thought we hit the ball well. They had key hits, we had key hits, we both made mistakes and they capitalized a little bit more on our mistakes,” CHS manager Allison Robinson said.
The first encounter between Monterey and Christopher on March 22 went 11 innings – ending in a tight 4-3 Cougars’ triumph. It was Monterey’s first league defeat since 2010. Tuesday’s matchup, though, was much more wide open. The teams combined for eight errors and the lead changed sides three times.
Christopher starting pitcher Aly Olvera returned to the circle for the first time in two weeks. She missed five games in that span, recovering from a concussion. For the first four innings, Olvera looked her usual self, striking out three and allowing two hits as the Cougars staked to a 3-1 lead.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first, the Cougars touched up Monterey’s Clarisa Cortez, the league leader in punch-outs, for one run in the second – an RBI fielder’s choice by Mariah Martinez – and two in the third. Mackenzie Holt’s two-out double sparked the rally, which included a RBI-single off the bat of Kayla Medrano. Kaslin Ettema also scored on the Medrano hit after the throw from right field sailed past Alyssa Seva’atasi behind the plate. The throw to Cortez, who scurried to cover the dish, beat Ettema, but her slide knocked the ball out of Cortez’s glove.
The advantage was short-lived. As clouds filled the sky above and with them came a blustery breeze, the tide changed in favor of the Toreadores in the fifth.
Monterey loaded the bases with no outs using a walk, an error and a base hit. All three runners scored, and after a 10 batters, three walks, two errors, three hits and four-run inning, the Toreadores led 5-3.
“Aly is a great pitcher. We had to be aggressive with her because she throws a lot of strikes,” Santora said. “We put the bat on the ball and got the breaks.”
The Cougars got one back in the bottom of the sixth, but Monterey sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the seventh and scored three runs with two outs, including RBI base hits from Amanda Olivio and Alyssa Seva’atasi to increase its cushion to 8-4 into the final half inning.
“She went out there and gave it her all,” Robinson said of her ace. “This is a good hitting team. Her endurance in the fifth, sixth and seventh you could tell wasn’t there. She started to slow down and missing her spots.”
Olvera chased in Olivia Barajas with a double to the fence to creep a bit closer. However, Cortez earned her fourth strikeout to end the game.
“Overall, it wasn’t a good game because we both didn’t play sound,” Robinson said. “We just have to build on what we did well, work on what we didn’t and move forward.”
The Cougars are at North County On Friday.
