Aptos
– If you’re going to battle to your first winning softball
season in 16 years, you might as well do it in dramatic
fashion.
That’s exactly what the Gavilan Lady Rams did on Tuesday in
Aptos, scoring five runs with in the top of the seventh to snatch a
victory
– and clinch their first over-.500 season since 1988 – from host
Cabrillo College
Aptos – If you’re going to battle to your first winning softball season in 16 years, you might as well do it in dramatic fashion.
That’s exactly what the Gavilan Lady Rams did on Tuesday in Aptos, scoring five runs with in the top of the seventh to snatch a victory – and clinch their first over-.500 season since 1988 – from host Cabrillo College.
Down 6-2 going into the final inning, the Lady Rams rallied to win 7-6 and now stands at 19-15 with three games to go in the Coast Conference South season.
Coach Paul Latsky led the Lady Rams to a 20-16 mark in 1988, their last winning season before this year.
This year’s team now has a chance to match just four other Gavilan squads with 20 victories if they can win just one of their final three games. And head coach Tim Kenworthy thinks that if his team can move into third in the conference, it has an outside shot at an at-large bid in the junior college softball postseason.
“We’ve had a wonderful season and I’m especially proud of how our team has played,” said Kenworthy. “Getting to 20 wins would be terrific, but more importantly if we can get a couple of more wins I think we still have an outside chance at making the state playoffs. And that would really be special.”
The Lady Rams held a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning, when Cabrillo’s bats came alive against Gavilan starter Destinee Powers. Powers had limited the Seahawks to just two hits through the first four innings, but in the fifth, Cabrillo put across four runs on four hits, a wild pitch, and an error to take a 4-2 lead.
Courtney Colianna led off the sixth with a double and Justine McDonald reached first on an error, sending Colianna to third. But two line drives and a strikeout ended the Rams’ scoring threat.
The Seahawks scored what appeared at the time to be a pair insurance runs in their half of the sixth to make the score 6-2 headed into the seventh.
Then the Lady Rams went to work.
No. 8 hitter Katrina Villa started the comeback by bouncing a single over the third baseman’s head into left field. Megan Smart followed with a perfect bunt single down the first base line, advancing Villa to second. After a single up the middle by Kristina Pena, the bases were loaded for Kristine Miles, who had lined out in two previous at bats. Seahawks starter D.C. Plasenua got Miles to hit a grounder to the third baseman, forcing Villa at the plate for the first out.
With the bases still loaded the Ram’s third hitter, Colianna, 3-for-4 on the day with a single, double, triple and three RBIs, singled sharply up the middle to drive in Megan Smart and make it 6-3. Justine McDonald was hit by a pitch, which forced in Pena and closed the gap to 6-4.
With the bases still loaded, Amanda Jackson drove a 2-2 fastball to the base of the left field fence, driving in both Miles and Colianna and sending McDonald to third.
“Amanda really clutched up with that hit,” said Kenworthy.
Now tied at 6-6, Erinn Gouker came to the plate. Her groundout to shortstop scored Gouker and the Lady Rams had an improbable 7-6 lead.
Reliever Courtney Colianna and the defense secured the spectacular comeback, Gavilan’s 19th victory of the season and 10th in conference play against 10 losses.
Meanwhile, the team had won its 17th and 18th games of the season last week.
Last Thursday, the Lady Rams trounced Mission College in Santa Clara by a score of 23-0. Gavilan broke open a game that was 1-0 after two innings, by erupting for 12 runs in the top of the third and pushing across nine more in the fourth. Gavilan scored a lone run in the fifth before the game was called on account of the eight-run mercy rule in community college softball. Katie Arao was 5-for-5 in the game with four runs and five RBIs.
On Friday, the Lady Rams hosted the Hartnell Panthers in a doubleheader and won the first game by a score of 7-0 before dropping the second, 6-3. In the first game, starter Courtney Colianna threw a three-hit shutout, striking out three while only giving up one walk.
The Lady Rams host San Jose City College on Thursday at Gavilan, then travel to Monterey Peninsula College to play the Lady Lobos next Monday.
