SANTA FE SPRINGS – Despite having a sub.-500 record, the St. Paul softball team was able to finish third in the Del Rio League and earned a spot in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
The Swordsmen took advantage, beating league champion and rival Bishop Amat in the first round and making a storybook run to the Division 3 quarterfinals.
But the bubble finally burst in a 3-1 loss to visiting Marina on Wednesday.
The Swordsmen (14-15) scored in the fifth inning to tie the score, 1-1. But Marina’s Rachel Ruiz belted a two-run home run in the sixth inning and that was the difference.
Marina advances to Saturday’s semifinals. It play at Yorba Linda, a 14-3 winner over Valley Christian on Tuesday.
“I’m just extremely proud of this group,” St. Paul coach Charles Gandara said. “If you told me this group after our first game against La Serna was going to be playing in the quarterfinal game and competing with a chance to win, I would’ve been like “yeah right.”
St. Paul’s Gianelle Napoles held her own in the circle against a Marina offense that scored 40 runs in their previous four games.
The freshman pitcher allowed three runs and six hits.
“This team showed a lot of grit, a lot of character, just a lot of fight,” Gandara said. “Especially our pitcher Gia, she’s a freshman and she’s been hurt. She’s been pitching through pain the last five games and she pitched because she wanted to do it for her team.”
St. Paul struggled to get its offense going, getting no-hit by Marina’s Mia Valbuena through the first four innings.
“We had our plan coming into the game,” Gandara said. “We knew she was a good pitcher, I mean she’s a really good pitcher. We knew she was a riseball and screwball pitcher, so we practiced that all week. It’s one thing to practice it, it’s another thing to see it. It took us two times through the lineup to figure her out.”
St. Paul’s offense finally broke through in the fifth inning. After Aleena Gutierrez led off the inning with the Swordsmen’s first hit of the game, it looked like it might lead to a big inning.
Addisyn Navasu delivered for the Swordsmen, tying the score at 1-1 with an RBI single. One batter later, Marina was able to get a double play and escape the jam with only one run allowed.
“We just put the ball in play and good things happen,” Gandala said. “Unfortunately, we ran ourselves out of the inning with one of our best hitters on deck. It happens.”
St. Paul looked like it had one last punch to throw when Kailee Meija led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a single. Meija, a University of Montana signee, finished 1 for 2 with a walk.
That would be the final hit of the game for the Swordsmen as Valbuena closed the door on any comeback attempt, retiring the final six batters in order.
Valbuena allowed three hits and finished with 12 strikeouts.
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