LAKE ELSINORE — The talented pieces of the El Modena softball puzzle hadn’t quite snapped together until Saturday afternoon.
When it happened, the results were overwhelming.
Taking the lead on the game’s fourth pitch and riding superb performances from all sectors, the Vanguards rolled past Temescal Canyon 13-3 in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 semifinal.
El Modena (22-8) earned a shot against Norco, the No. 1-seeded team, in the final Friday or Saturday at Barber Park in Irvine.
“I’ve always felt like we were getting closer and closer to playing a really clean game,” Vanguards coach Bobby Calderon said. “And that would be the separator for us, if we were ever able to do that.”
Not surprisingly, star and captain Kaitlyn Galasso provided the jump start, hammering a 2-1 pitch over the right-field fence. It was the start of a long afternoon of good things happening for the Vangaurds.
Home runs by Parker Mayes and Lucy Mitchell would follow, Mayes’ being a three-run shot in the second. It was a much smoother ride than the first three rounds, when the Vanguards twice had to hang on after building big leads, and then had to rally from behind.
“Coming in, we wanted to punch them in the nose first, to strike first,” Galasso said. “I hit a home run but we knew our job wasn’t done. Any team can come back. Keeping our composure and getting good at-bats all day was really the key.”
Also key was getting shut-down pitching from Sara Pinedo, who allowed three hits and struck out seven in five innings.
“She came in and did her job,” Calderon said. “She set the tone early, she pitched to contact and that’s all we can ask for her.”
If there can be a key moment in a 13-3 game, it came in the second when Nia Hall, the hitting hero of Temescal Canyon’s quarterfinal victory, blasted a no-doubt home run to lead off. The Vanguards still had a 6-1 lead, but the Temescal crowd came to life and there appeared to be an opening for them to climb back in.
Instead, Pinedo struck out the next three batters.
“That didn’t bother me,” Pinedo said. “Home runs are going to happen. You just have to shake it, and that’s exactly what I did.”
El Modena got contributions from all over the lineup and field. Mayes drove in five runs, and Galasso had three hits, scored twice and drove in three.
“Kaitlyn Galasso is the best player in the country, I’ll go on record as saying that,” Calderon said. “That’s four consecutive games she’s had a home run, three straight where she’s hit it out of the park in her first at-bat.”
For Temescal Canyon (21-6), it was rough ending to an improbable ride. The Titans, with just one senior on the roster, knocked off three of the top 10 teams in the section rankings.
“No one expected us to be here with as young as we are,” Coach Kayla Hill said. “We now know what it takes to get here, and these girls are only going to get better.”
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