The Hollister Heat 12-and under ‘B’ travel softball team can lay
claim to the most successful performance at an ASA-sponsored
tournament than any other Hollister-based travel team in history.
The Heat 12’s finished third out of 51 teams at the ASA ‘B’ Western
National’s in Roseville, winning six straight games before losing
its last two.
The Hollister Heat 12-and under ‘B’ travel softball team can lay claim to the most successful performance at an ASA-sponsored tournament than any other Hollister-based travel team in history. The Heat 12’s finished third out of 51 teams at the ASA ‘B’ Western National’s in Roseville, winning six straight games before losing its last two.
The Heat 12’s were eliminated Sunday with a 5-0 loss to eventual champ Thousand Oaks Thunder and a 3-1 defeat to East County of Santee.
“It was fun,” said a tired-sounding Heat manager Todd Freitas via telephone Sunday evening. “The kids came through for us from top to bottom.”
Freitas was impressed with the Thunder’s dominant pitcher.
“She was six-feet tall and really brought it,” said Freitas. “She had a great changeup, too. Thunder Oaks was a classy team.”
Freitas wasn’t too enamored with the Vista Blue, a team out of Oceanside which the Heat beat 6-5 Friday night.
“Their fans were disrespectful and saying bad things while our pitcher was pitching,” said Freitas.
Apparently East County of Santee and Vista Blue have a heated rivalry.
“After we beat Vista Blue all of the East County players lined up to congratulate us,” said Freitas. “Saturday night was special. There were a lot of teams playing and the place was crowded. A lot of teams were looking past us. We snuck up on some teams.”
Vista Blue had a run in in the bottom of the seventh and had a runner on at first when Heat center fielder Liz Gatto made a tremendous catch in the right-center field gap.
“She saved the day,” said Freitas of Gatto. “That ball almost took her glove off.”
Sarah Solis got the final out on a ground ball to Elena Fata at short. The Heat scored four runs in the fourth. Brenna Carrillo-Zazueta had an RBI single in the
inning. Gatto had an RBI double in the fifth.
Fata, who had a fine tournament at the plate, singled in a run in the fifth for the game-winner.
“She was, by far, the best hitter we had,” said Freitas of Fata, who hit the fence on three different occasions during the tourney.
Fata had a two-run double in the Heat’s 15-3 drubbing of the Stompers West of Danville on Friday. Chelsea Freitas had two hits and scored three times, whilc Hailey Macfarlane had two hits and scored twice.
In the loss to East County, the Heat trailed 2-0 in the fifth before scoring its run. Macfarlane singled, as did Stacy Filice. Kelsey Russell was thrown out at the plate on a close call, which prompted an argument from Todd Freitas. Rachel Maheu singled in the Heat’s lone run.
“Rachel and Bri Romero hit extremely well, too,” said Todd Freitas.
Freitas is hoping to turn it up a notch next year.
“I plan on coaching a Heat ‘A’ team,” said Freitas, whose daughter, Chelsea, will be 12 next year. “We have four of our five top pitchers coming back next year.”
The Heat 12’s finished the summer 29-8-2.
