San Benito manager Scott Smith had spoke on the importance of team all season.
He had to.
With a starting nine that included six underclassmen – SIX! – it was almost entirely necessary to develop one unit around the team’s three seniors in Bre Fata, Marisa Ibarra and JC Clayton.
The seniors would provide the leadership. The sophomores and freshmen would hopefully play relaxed and carefree.
Or at least try to.
It’s a simple plan, really, and one that is used every year at every high school – the seniors groom the underclassmen for the future.
But just when is the future?
As history, pop culture and the art of film making have taught us, however, there would come a time this season when someone else would need to step up, someone maybe unexpected – the passing of the torch.
“I was so excited that everyone picked me up,” Clayton said. “I had a tough game and everyone pulled through.
“It was amazing.”
JC Clayton, for all the games she has won for San Benito this season, admittedly struggled at the plate on Saturday.
She seemed to be beating herself up for it afterward, but she shouldn’t have.
“I think we put so much pressure on JC to carry the load all year long,” Smith said. “For the underclassmen, it was almost like, ‘Hey, we need to pick her up. This kid has won so many games for us all year and she’s having a tough game today.’
“But what a way for a senior to go out. You have a little bit of a down game, and it’s almost like saying, ‘See, you can do it without me.'”
It was only fitting an underclassman stepped up and into the spotlight. Jessica Steigelman’s three-run triple culminated a rather improbable comeback on Saturday in the CCS Division I championship.
“I’m never 100 percent confident with [Hollister], but I thought we had it,” Gilroy manager Catherine Hallada said. “Things like that happen. Nerves sometimes get to you.”
Down to its final four outs, San Benito connected on three straight singles before Steigelman’s blast to left field leapfrogged the Lady Balers past Gilroy in the bottom of the sixth inning.
San Benito staved off the Mustangs in the seventh en route to a 4-3 win and its fourth straight CCS title.
There is officially a mystique about the Lady Balers.
“We all played our hardest and left it on the field,” Gilroy starting pitcher Ashley Harrington said. “We came a lot farther than anybody thought we would.”
She then took a second before adding, “It always goes their way, somehow. We’ll get them one day. One day it will be our turn.”
For San Benito, though, it took a true team effort. Clayton may have struggled at the plate, but she and the seniors had been grooming the underclassmen all season for the future.
Saturday’s come-from-behind victory, highlighted by the swing of a sophomore, was the culmination of a year’s worth of work.
Said Smith, “To see the other kids come through was amazing.”
