After falling behind by one run in the top half of the first
inning during Saturday’s quarterfinal round of the Central Coast
Section Championships, the top-seeded Haybalers plated eight
unanswered runs en route to a convincing 8-2 victory over No. 9
Leigh, and remained on course to earning their sixth straight
Division I title.
SALINAS
It hasn’t happened much at all this season. But for the first time in a long time on Saturday, the San Benito High softball team experienced a deficit.
It didn’t last long, though.
After falling behind by one run in the top half of the first inning during Saturday’s quarterfinal round of the Central Coast Section Championships, the top-seeded Haybalers plated eight unanswered runs en route to a convincing 8-2 victory over No. 9 Leigh, and remained on course to earning their sixth straight Division I title.
San Benito (27-1) will now square off against No. 5 Carlmont (22-6) in Tuesday’s semifinal round, with the winner advancing to Saturday’s CCS championship against either No. 3 Gilroy (24-4) or No. 7 Leland (23-6).
First pitch on Tuesday will be 7 p.m. at PAL Stadium in San Jose.
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The Balers’ semifinal bid was really never in doubt last Saturday, though, even if they trailed in a softball game for the first time in roughly a month.
Following a leadoff triple by Jenn Amaral and a fielder’s choice by Lauryn Saunders, the Longhorns grabbed a 1-0 lead in the opening frame. But San Benito plated a pair in the home half of the first, and never looked back.
Samantha Puentes led off for the Balers with a triple as well, then later scored on an RBI single by Brittany Hoff. Jessica Steigelman then knocked in Hoff with an RBI single of her own, staking the Balers to a lead they would never relinquish.
Paige Miguel started the game for the Balers but pitched only one complete inning, allowing one run on one hit while walking a pair. Reliever Megan Sabbatini pitched the remaining five innings for the top-seeded Balers, though, allowing one run on two hits, while striking out nine and walking two.
“Paige, she just struggled a bit,” San Benito manager Scott Smith said. “She didn’t have her best stuff.”
“But we got up right away and Samantha, who is hitting the crud out of the ball, she leads off with a triple and we get a couple more hits behind her and Steigelman comes up with two outs and knocks another run in, and we jump right back up 2-1,” Smith added. “We just had some really good at-bats. Kids were fouling off some pitches and getting a mistake.”
It was 5-1 through two innings when Puentes came through with a 2-RBI single, scoring both Brittani Newman and Brittany Sparrer, while Mari Vallejo chased Puentes home later in the inning with a base knock to the right side.
Longhorn starting pitcher Lizzie Hogan began to settle down following the second frame, though. After the first two innings yielded five runs total, she managed to get through the next two innings unscathed.
“I thought we did not adjust in the box. As she was figuring out ways to pitch us, we didn’t adjust to make her see something different,” Smith said referring to Hogan. “Move up in the box, back, crowd the plate, move off, whatever. I think we got pretty stagnant in there in staying in the same place, and that’s why I think her numbers and strikeouts increased a little bit towards the middle to the end of the game.
“Finally, toward the last two innings, we started moving in the box and that made a big difference for us.”
The difference was fairly noticeable in the fifth inning, when Puentes was hit by a pitch to start the frame, Vallejo followed with a base on balls, and both early mistakes were compounded when Hoff roped an RBI single to center field.
Puentes scored from second base on the single, but the throw home was wide and allowed both Vallejo and Hoff to move into scoring position.
“To Leigh’s credit, their pitcher was probably one of the best we’ve faced this year,” Smith said of Hogan. “But they just made some mistakes on defense and threw a couple balls away.”
One batter later, and an errant pick-off attempt at third base allowed Vallejo to score, while Steigelman later brought Hoff home on an RBI single up the middle, pushing the Balers ahead 8-1.
Leigh did get one run in the sixth, and it again came after a leadoff triple — this time by Saunders — while Hogan later pushed her across with a single to left field.
But before any rally could be realized by Leigh, Sabbatini struck out four of the next six batters she faced to end the game.
“They play all facets of the game pretty good,” Smith said of Leigh. “But I can’t say enough about Megan Sabbatini coming in, facing their tough lineup.
“Five innings. Pretty impressive.”
It was the second win over Leigh this season for the Balers, who previously defeated the San Jose school on April 9 at the Mission City Invitational in Santa Clara. San Benito posted a similar 8-2 score on Leigh in that game, too.
Tuesday’s semifinal will be against a familiar opponent as well.
The Balers have already faced Carlmont this season, although that game took place during the Annie Lynch Memorial Circle of Champions tournament to open the season in early March. It was a 3-0 victory for San Benito, which received a one-hit pitching performance by Paige Miguel.
