Hollister’s softball and baseball teams both won exciting, tight games in Central Coast Section playoff openers.
Concurrently, the league champ Baler track and field team saw five athletes and one four-person relay team compete in the CCS Finals in Gilroy.
The Balers track team won the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Gabilan Division title and the PCAL Masters title this year, continuing a proud tradition. At the CCS Semifinals, they saw a handful of student-athletes excel and move on to the CCS finals on May 23.
Competition took place next in that meet, though none qualified for the upcoming CIF State Finals.
The Hollister girls 4×100 relay team had one of the best efforts of the day. The squad clocked 49.04 in the semifinals a week previous and moved on to the Finals, where it ran a 48.33 for sixth place. The time was a school record, breaking a mark that had stood for 25 years. The Baler quartet consisted of Lianni Preciado, Paige Pierson, Ana Kaplansky and Rylee Skow.
Two Hollister runners competed in distance races at the CIF Finals. On the girls side, Prienna Chavez clocked a season-best 5:04.91 for 10th place in the 1600 meters.
In the boys 1600, Andrew Parra ran his best of the year to finish in seventh place in 4:17.40.
In the girls high jump, Dani Orsetti leaped 4-10 for 12th place and Taylor Evans jumped 4-10 for 13th place. The placement difference was based on which of the three allowed jumps was their clearance jump.
The overall competition in the high jump was challenging with seven athletes clearing or continuing past 5-2.
“The warmups were good but I had a little hesitant jump at 5-0,” Orsetti said.
The Baler senior also played volleyball and basketball for Hollister. In track, she competed in multiple events including the long jump, middle and long distances and relays. She will continue in volleyball next year at Redlands University in southern California.
Evans is new to the event, but already qualified to finish high enough at the CCS semifinals and earn a ticket to the CCS finals.
“I’ve only been doing the high jump for a little while,” Evans said. “I had to convince the coaches to let me try it.”
Earlier in the year, she competed in the hurdles, long jump and triple jump. When she tried the high jump, she quickly found success. Evans cleared 4-4 in her first meet on April 11 and in six weeks, was up to 4-10 at the CCS finals.
Nola White shined in the shot put with a toss of 34-7.25 for seventh place, just short of her best of 35-3.75, which she reached in the semifinals. In the discus, Victoria Gonzalez-O’Donoghue flung the discus 101-0 for eleventh place.
Young softball squad climbs high
Just three years after the magical 2023 Baler team won CCS and NorCal titles, Hollister is back in the elite of CCS softball.
The Balers never slipped far, competing at high levels the last two years, but a young squad has quickly climbed up high. Hollister is 21-6 overall, won the PCAL Gabilan title and is seeded No. 2 in the CCS Open Division playoffs. The Balers began post-season play with a 2-1 win over Valley Christian and have moved into the semifinals.
In the victory over the Warriors, freshman pitcher Sidney Esparza tossed a masterpiece. The Baler hurler threw a complete-game beauty, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out 11 VC batters. That marked just over half the total of the 21 outs.
Freshman Aalyiah Davila knocked in a fifth inning run and, with the game tied 1-1 in the last of the sixth, Madalyne Rodriguez singled in the game-winner. Rodriguez was 2-for-3 on the day.
For the season, Esparza owns a sparkling 2.31 ERA in 112.1 innings pitched. The offense is led by senior shortstop Ashley Io with a .486 batting average, along with 20 runs scored, 17 RBIs and 12 steals.
Esparza is dynamite at the dish too, hitting .444 with a team-high six homers. She has scored 14 and knocked in 20. Avery Chavez, team steals leader with 22, is hitting .392 with 25 runs scored.
Rodriguez is at .391 with 15 runs scored and 18 RBIs. De’zeyer Fa’agai is hitting .377 with four homers.
Baseball rallies past Carlmont
The comeback kids of Baler baseball did it again. The never-say-die team fashioned a superb comeback to rally past Carlmont in their CCS Division III playoff opener on May 23. Hollister trailed 6-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth but scored two in that inning and then four in their last-ups in the seventh to shock the Scots 7-6.
The victory advanced the Balers into the semifinals against Wilcox, the team they beat for a CCS championship last spring.
Against Carlmont, Layton Smith hit a homer and had three RBIs. Braden Barone, Max Cunningham, Nate Candelaria and Eli Lovejoy each had two hits and Jordan Quezada stole two bases.
The pitching was spread among hurlers Barone, Ami Lopez, Smith and Lovejoy.
The victory raised Hollister’s record to 17-10 overall. The Balers, a young and reloading squad, jelled during the year and finished third in the PCAL Gabilan Division. Carmel won the league title, with Palma second.
The Balers came in second last year and lost a lot of talent to graduation, yet excelled nonetheless. Last year’s CCS title team was 12-6 in league play, whereas this group was 16-5.
