Gavilan returns just four players from last year’s historic
team
GILROY
Talk of making a return trip to the regional playoffs has been put on the back burner for the Gavilan College softball team.
It’s still on their minds, no doubt. The Rams compiled a 34-18 overall record last season – the best record in school history – and qualified for the regional playoffs for the first time since 1984, a pair of impressive feats that will serve as part of the team’s back story this season.
But illness and injury has forced Gavilan manager Nikki Dequin to shuffle the lineup around recently, and although the Rams currently boast a 6-3 preseason record, priority No. 1 for Gavilan is getting everyone back in the lineup, getting everyone healthy.
“We’re actually going through a rough time right now,” Dequin said. “We’re trying to get over this little bump in the road before league starts.”
Gavilan’s rough patch includes two players who are currently out of the lineup. Starting catcher Amanda Ross (SBHS), one of only four returning sophomores for Gavilan, is out with a wrist injury, while starting shortstop Samantha Williams of Clovis is currently battling pneumonia.
The two holes – at catcher and shortstop – will most certainly hurt Gavilan on the defensive side. On offense, the Rams are averaging nearly seven runs a game so far, and Dequin would like to get Ross and Williams back as soon as possible in order to continue that high run production as the season progresses.
“Everybody we have can hit the ball pretty well,” Dequin said. “It does hurt us a little bit, but mostly it hurts us defensively.
“Hopefully we can get them back healthy and quickly because we still have a lot of season left.”
While Danielle Scibuola (SBHS), Mikhaela Osuna (Anchorpoint HS) and Audra Brown (SBHS) return to the Gavilan lineup as well, the Rams are otherwise fairly young – nine of the 13 players are freshmen.
Gavilan is compiled of several players from San Benito and Gilroy High, however – the top two teams in the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs last year – including Hailey MacFarlane (SBHS), Angelica Galindo (GHS), Ashley Gamboa (GHS) and Melinda Ortiz (GHS).
Ortiz will be Gavilan’s No. 1 pitcher this season, a “huge boost for the program,” Dequin said.
“She’s very talented, very coachable,” Dequin said. “She wants to move on to the next level, so her work ethic is definitely there.”
Gilroy’s Andrea Garcia, Morgan Hill’s Kaereanne Christman, Anzar’s Zoa Lopez and Anchorpoint’s Danielle Payne all cracked the Rams’ lineup as well.
Moving on to the next level for Gavilan, though, means staying atop the Coast Conference South, which was arguably the toughest league Northern California had to offer last season.
It also means getting healthy, and staying healthy, before San Jose City College visits Gilroy for the league opener on Feb. 24.
“We’ve got some key players and they’re expecting to play at the top of our league if not (be at) the top of our league and make it to regionals again.
“But right now, our focus is getting everybody healthy, getting everybody 100 percent.”
GAVILAN COLLEGE SOFTBALL
Reedley College (DH) W 7-1, W 9-1
San Francisco City College W 9-1
Ohlone College L 1-9
Santa Rosa L 1-2
Allen Hancock College (DH) W 11-3, W 13-11
Porterville College (DH) W 5-3, L 4-12
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The Rams will play in a doubleheader Tuesday at West Hills College in Coalinga. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
