Balers roll dice in quarterfinal victory

Triggered by a corps of talented sophomores, Hollister High
vaulted into the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Division I
softball playoffs with a 4-0 blanking of Independence in Saturday’s
quarterfinal contest.
SALINAS – Triggered by a corps of talented sophomores, Hollister High vaulted into the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Division I softball playoffs with a 4-0 blanking of Independence in Saturday’s quarterfinal contest played at the Salinas Softball Complex.

The 5th-seeded Balers (22-9), who have now won more games in a season than any team before them, encounter top-seeded Carlmont (29-5) this Thursday at PAL Stadium in San Jose at 7 p.m. Defending champ North Salinas and Santa Teresa play in the other semifinal at 4:30 p.m. The Scots defeated Gilroy 5-2 at Hawes Park in Redwood City on Saturday.

“I wanted to play Carlmont because Gilroy knows us so well,” said Baler head coach Scott Smith, whose Balers split four meetings with the Mustangs this year. “We can play with Carlmont. They’re a good team with a very good pitcher, but we can beat them.”

The Sixers (18-14) kept the Balers at bay with some crafty pitching by junior Christina Brambila. Brambila, who didn’t throw that hard but had good location, allowed just a Liz Stewart single through the first four innings and that was it as the score stood 0-0.

With one out in the fifth, sophomore Rachelle Barrientos ripped a hard bounder past Sixers shortstop Kim McHenery. The ball was hit so hard that it got past center fielder Ryan Mendibil and rolled to the fence as Barrientos chugged all the way around the bases for a triple.

Barrientos originally held when Baler sophomore Megan Smith’s sharp grounder went to McHenery at short. But when the ball escaped McHenery’s grasp, Barrientos jetted towards home. The play at the plate was close thanks to a good job of blocking the plate by Sixers catcher Nicole Flores, but Barrientos got in for the first run of the game.

“I was safe,” said Barrientos confidently after the game. “I got in there.”

After Stewart’s grounder was booted to put runners on at first and second, sophomore Johni Kiesewetter’s second successful sac bunt of the game moved the runners up. That proved key when Jenny Maheu’s infield grounder was misplayed, allowing Smith to score.

In the seventh, with McHenery taking over on the mound for Brambila, the Balers pushed two more runs across with some more manufacturing. Barrientos singled to start the inning and was replaced on the basepaths by the speedy Nicole Burns, another sophomore who was called up from the junior varsity for the playoffs. Megan Smith then faked a bunt, then singled to the right of the Sixers shortstop, who cut the ball off but had no play on the mercurial Burns. Stewart successfully sacrificed bunted to move the runners up a base.

With Kiesewetter at the plate, Scott Smith rolled the dice with a squeeze play. Kiesewetter bunted the ball perfectly about four yards in front of home plate as Burns sped down the third baseline. McHenery raced in and quickly shoveled the ball to Flores at the plate as Burns came crashing in, causing a collision. The ball went to the backstop and Smith alertly snuck in all the mayhem for the fourth run of the game.

It was the second time Burns – who is rapidly becoming a secret weapon off the bench for Scott Smith – has scored in the playoffs as a pinch-runner. She tallied the only run in the Balers’ first round win over Milpitas.

“What I like about Nicole is that she slides so hard, she always causes collisions,” said Scott.

The winning pitcher was Alyssa Baker (7-4), who pitched into the fifth inning. She was pulled with two out and a 1-0 count on Mendibil. The Sixers had runners on at second and third, as well, thanks to a base hit and two Baler errors, which came on one play.

Sophomore Dani Hernandez came in and threw three straight strikes to Mendibil, who couldn’t catch up to them. Hernandez, using an effective dropball, struck out the first two batters of the sixth inning. She then gave up a single to McHenery, but got the final out of the inning on a ground out.

In the seventh, Hernandez got in trouble on a single by Angelina Rodriguez and an infield single by Melissa Blas with none out. Erin Blake, who had two beautiful push bunts for singles, tried to bunt with two strikes, but bunted the ball foul for strike three. Two ground outs later, the Balers were on their way to a showdown with the Scots.

“I was going to pull Alyssa later, but those two errors we had forced me to make the switch earlier,” said Scott Smith. “You see how effective having two pitchers with constrasting styles can be. That was the best game Alyssa pitched the whole year. She was keeping the ball down and hitting her spots.”

The defensive play of the game was made by Baler shortstop Kim Dabo. Dabo went to her right on a grounder by Blas in the fifth, flagged it down and leapt in the air to fire the ball first to get Blas by a hair. Stewart had to be credited for a Willie McCovey-like stretch at first base to complete the play.

The Sixers had some good defense, too. Rodriguez, who was just switched from right to center as the top of the sixth started, robbed the Balers Nashia Alvarez of extra bases when she flagged down Alvarez’ deep drive to center.

Meanwhile, three out of the four Baler runs were unearned, which didn’t please Independence head coach Kelly Dougherty.

“That was unfortunate for us,” said Dougherty. “We had good pitching from Brambila and she’s a converted third baseman. I hope Hollister wins it all because, if we lose to someone, we want to say we lost to the CCS champs.”

If the Balers win two more games, they will achieve their first ever CCS title in softball.

Baler bits: The Balers fell to Carlmont 6-1 in the semifinals of the Circle of Champions as the defense caved in with six errors. – Baker and Hernandez combined for nine strikeouts. The only walk was by Baker to start the bottom of the first. – The top five hitters in the Balers’ lineup went a collective 0-17. – The Balers are tied for fourth in the CCS rankings with North Salinas, while the Scots are ranked third. – North Salinas shut out Watsonville 5-0 while Santa Teresa clipped Wilcox 2-1 in 10 innings. – The CCS DI championship game is this Saturday at PAL Stadium at 10 a.m.

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Baker, Hernandez (5) and Baxter; Brambila, McHenery (7) and Flores. WP-Baker (8-4). LP-Brambila (14-10). 3B – Barrientos (H). 2 hits – Barrientos (H); Blake (I).