It’s Balers, Mustangs, again in CCS title
San Benito will square off against Gilroy for second year in a
row
For the second straight season, San Benito and Gilroy will meet
up in the CIF-Central Coast Section Division I championship after
the two teams won their respective semifinal games on Tuesday,
albeit by far different outcomes.
It’s Balers, Mustangs, again in CCS title
San Benito will square off against Gilroy for second year in a row
For the second straight season, San Benito and Gilroy will meet up in the CIF-Central Coast Section Division I championship after the two teams won their respective semifinal games on Tuesday, albeit by far different outcomes.
The No. 8 Mustangs (16-12-1), needing to win the last game of its regular season to simply qualify toward the postseason, survived North Salinas 7-6 in 10 innings Tuesday after it trailed by three runs in the final frame.
The No. 3 Lady Balers (26-4), winners of the last three Division I championships, managed to pull out a gutsy 1-0 win over Wilcox and shut out a Chargers team that was averaging slightly more than six runs a game this season, shut out a Chargers team that hadn’t been held scoreless all year.
Now, the teams will square off just like last year, when San Benito topped Gilroy 8-3 in the final; just like the previous three times they’ve met this season alone, with the Lady Balers taking all three by a combined 20-3 margin.
However, in a winner-take-all final, no one on San Benito is expecting a comfortable game like the previous scores would suggest, especially with the scrappy Mustangs playing its best softball of the season, San Benito manager Scott Smith said.
“Gilroy is playing really relaxed ball and they’re hitting the crap out of the ball right now,” Smith said. “They’re gonna be tough.
“The two things were fighting is that they’re playing with a lot of confidence, meaning Gilroy, and we’re gonna have to fight the complacency of saying, ‘Well, we beat them twice (in TCAL), no big deal.’ We just have to try and get on them early.”
First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m. at San Jose’s PAL Stadium.
Jumping on Gilroy early in the game hasn’t necessarily happened this season, however, despite the fact the Lady Balers defeated the Mustangs 8-0 on March 14, 5-2 on April 30 and 7-1 on May 7.
No, San Benito’s scoring has come in bunches in the later innings, especially the fifth and sixth frames when it has tacked on 13 of its 20 runs scored against the Mustangs this season.
“I think we just need to play heads-up and if we are on our game, we’re not gonna have any trouble,” said shortstop Jessica Vest, who helped knock in the game’s only run Tuesday against Wilcox, then assisted on an outstanding defensive play in the seventh that prevented the Chargers from scoring the equalizer. “But we need to hit the ball.”
San Benito connected on six hits Tuesday against Wilcox, against a pitcher in Amelia Vivo whom they had never seen before. As for Gilroy, though, San Benito has stood in against all three of its pitchers.
Lady Baler Marisa Ibarra is the only pitcher anyone on Gilroy has ever seen when the two teams meet up. The Mustangs figured her out the very first time she pitched, on March 21, 2006. Since then, though, Ibarra and the Lady Balers have defeated Gilroy 11 straight times.
“It’s probably gonna be the hardest game I’ve pitched against them,” said Ibarra, who ran her record to 26-4 on Tuesday, 107-11 overall for her entire prep career. “I’ve pitched every game against them. We’ll just have to play our best.”
However unlikely Gilroy’s march to the CCS final may have been, though, San Benito, despite being winners of the last three section championships, stayed true to its postseason path this year with a starting nine that includes six underclassmen – only Bre Fata (3B), JC Clayton (2B) and Marisa Ibarra (P) will be graduating in June.
Otherwise, freshmen Marissa Adame (C) and Taylor Powell (RF), and sophomores Brittany Hoff (LF), Mari Vallejo (CF), Jessica Steigleman (1B) and Jessica Vest (SS) make up San Benito’s starting lineup.
“It’s a tribute to the senior leadership that they’ve got,” Smith said.
“They’ve learned to play relaxed.”
It’s a young crew, no doubt. But one, at least by prep softball standards, that has certainly grown up fast. The CCS final may be foreign for some of them, but they’ll be up against a familiar foe in the Gilroy Mustangs.
Said Clayton, “We’ll be pumped to be there.”
