SANTA ROSA — Santa Rosa head softball coach Erica Molina admitted her team simply did not show up for Game 1 against San Diego in a game which they lost 11-1 on Friday.
It was a different Lady Warriors team on Saturday afternoon in Santa Rosa, but despite battling all game long and giving themselves a chance to tie the game late, the San Diego Lady Vaqueros eventually prevailed 4-2 and won the best-of-three bi-district playoff series in a 2-0 sweep.
San Diego sophomore pitcher Zalayna Perez held the Lady Warriors to just four hits and struck out five batters in the win.
“We take pride in our pitching and in our defense. Our hitting has come up big with a home run on Thursday and one which helped decide the game today, but we take the most pride in our defense,” San Diego head coach Rey Ramirez said. “(Santa Rosa) is a great team and has great players. I warned the girls they were going to come after us.”
The Lady Vaqueros stormed ahead and led 4-0 following a three-run fifth inning that included a two-run home run from Celeste Gonzalez.
Santa Rosa put up runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth inning, but errors and limited offensive production was too much to overcome.
Still, Molina was pleased with the bounce back and the strong finish in a season in which their final roster had only 10 players.
“I’m just proud of the girls” Molina said. We’ve been through suspensions, injuries and people quitting. They’ve improved so much this year and I expect big things for the program. We have great hard-working kids and a young team; our future is bright.
“We just haven’t been able to get those timely hit that could get us extra runs this year, but that’s due to inexperience.”
For the first few innings, both teams fielded well on defense and the hits were kept to a minimum.
In the third inning, Santa Rosa’s Alyssa Saldivar dropped a throw that would have completed a 6-3 ground out to end the inning. Instead, San Diego’s Gonzalez was safe at first and Leandra Bazan scored to make it 1-0.
Following San Diego’s third big inning in the top of the fifth, the Lady Warriors answered in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single from Jazzlyn Robles.
After Robles scored, teammate Kaila Cruz hesitated running to third base and was caught trying to get back to second base in the process, ending the inning and halting momentum.
Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Santa Rosa had two on with two outs when Misty Lopez hit an RBI single to deep right field, scoring pitcher Raeven Robles to make it a 4-2 game.
Once again, San Diego got out of the inning allowing just one run as Santa Rosa stranding two runners on base. As a team, Santa Rosa left six runners stranded.
Santa Rosa’s Robles kept San Diego off the board in the sixth and seventh, but Santa Rosa couldn’t get by Perez and the San Diego defense in the bottom of the seventh as the game ended with what would have been the tying runner flying out to left field.
Robles pitched five scoreless innings for Santa Rosa and struck out three. Shortstop Jaelynn Robles was 3 for 4 at the plate with an RBI.