A year after seeing its amazing eight-year title run come to an end, the San Benito High softball team has climbed the mountain top once again.
The Haybalers won their record-breaking ninth Central Coast Section Division I playoff championship after an 8-5 win over Wilcox on Saturday at San Jose’s PAL Stadium.
Top-seed San Benito (24-5) entered the day tied with Carlmont for the most Division I titles. Only Notre Dame-Salinas, with 15 CCS championships (mostly coming in Division III), has more. The Balers won despite committing two errors and leaving nine runners on base.
“Our defense faltered one inning and I made a couple of bad pitch calls, but ultimately the team had my back, and we ended up pulling it out,” Balers coach Scott Smith said.
Five years after watching her sister, Marisa, pitch the team to a championship, Balers senior Adriana Ibarra earned the win in the circle. Pitching on just one day of rest—Ibarra threw a no-hitter in the semifinals—the left-hander allowed four earned runs and five hits in going the distance.
“This was the first time in a month that Adriana had to go on one days rest,” Smith said. “She was a little sore and probably didn’t hit her spots as good as she’s been doing, but she persevered and showed a lot of heart.”
San Benito was never seriously threatened, taking an 8-0 lead after a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the third inning. Suzy Brookshire led off the inning with a walk before scoring on Callee Heen’s double.
Makayla Johnson, Rylee Roberson and Ibarra all had RBI singles in the inning, and Brookshire capped the uprising with a two-run triple. The No. 3 seed Chargers (24-6) made things somewhat interesting after scoring three runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth to get to within three runs, but that’s as close as they would get.
So it wasn’t an artistic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but the Balers will take it.
“Not all wins are going to be pretty,” Smith said. “But this one is special. Last year (after losing to Carlmont 8-1 in the championship game) there was a sense of complacency, like it wasn’t a big deal. To see the emotion pour out of the kids this year in terms of getting back and doing it really made me feel good that they understand how important and how hard it is to win and what it feels like not to succeed.”
From the moment they lost to Carlmont in last year’s final, all the players and Smith could think about was reaching the summit once again.
“Last year was really hard, and we were excited to have the opportunity to win it again,” third baseman Isha Gonzalez said.
Brookshire, who led the Monterey Bay League in virtually every major offensive category in earning Gabilan Division Co-MVP honors, said the victory was all the more rewarding considering the injuries and health issues the team had to overcome.
“I’m really proud of this team for working hard and earning this,” Brookshire said. “I love to see everyone playing their hearts out, and watching Adriana pitch, I can’t put it into words what that’s like. I’m honored to say I got to catch her for two years.”
Gonzalez, Johnson, Roberson and Brittne Rossi—the team’s Nos. 6-9 hitters—produced nine of the team’s 13 hits.
The quartet put on a clinic in manufacturing the team’s first run in the second inning. With one out, Gonzalez, Johnson, Roberson and Rossi all had singles, a testament to their ability to be disciplined at the plate and getting a good pitch to hit. Roberson’s hit came via a perfectly-placed bunt in between the pitcher and catcher.
In a 14-4, 6-inning mercy-rule win over Los Gatos in the quarterfinals, the Balers made seven errors, highlighting the concern Smith had with the team’s defense from the beginning of the season.
However, the Balers rebounded with a flawless game defensively against Los Altos in the semifinals, then did enough in the finals to capture the program’s ninth section championship.
In Smith’s first coaching the program in 2002, he recalled a game against Presentation, which was a perennial power at the time.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t beat these guys,’” Smith said. “But we did, and that was kind of the start of believing in ourselves. When we first started out here, I could not imagine the success we’d have all these years. I’m really proud of the community and the school for supporting us, and it’s a great thing for Hollister.”
