Though it was Brittany Sparrer’s slide across home plate in the
top of the ninth inning that put the San Benito Lady Balers up for
good, an 0-1 pitch to Nicole Rianda will be what gives the Gilroy
High Lady Mustangs nightmares until the two teams meet again.
GILROY
Though it was Brittany Sparrer’s slide across home plate in the top of the ninth inning that put the San Benito Lady Balers up for good, an 0-1 pitch to Nicole Rianda will be what gives the Gilroy High Lady Mustangs nightmares until the two teams meet again.
With GHS up 4-2 in the top of the seventh inning, pitcher Sarah Lira had the Lady Mustangs within two strikes of capturing a share of the Tri-County Athletic League championship. However, Rianda turned on a pitch up in the zone and drove it over the left-field fence for a game-tying two-run home run, propelling the Lady Balers to an eventual 5-4 victory in a drama-filled, regular-season finale on Thursday in Gilroy.
“This happens every year and it’s the hardest thing to go through,” Gilroy’s lone senior and a clearly frustrated Alissa Castro said. “Every year I feel like we have it and then they come up with something. That’s the hardest thing. We are always that close. We are always two outs away, one out away or two pitches away.”
Instead of the Lady Mustangs celebrating their first league title on Senior Day, it was the Lady Balers basking in the championship moment, splitting the TCAL crown with Notre Dame.
“Gilroy is so good and I feel bad for them because they are always one play away,” San Benito manager Scott Smith said. “They are every bit as good as we are, probably a little better, and sometimes we get the breaks. It’s good to beat them but at the same time I like Gilroy, they are a good ball club.”
It would be easy dissect every tiny detail of Thursday’s game, but in the end, GHS manager Julie Berggren appreciated the effort her team put forth.
“Besides the final score, I am very proud of the girls,” Berggren said. “They played their hearts out. They didn’t leave anything to chance. I felt like we hit the ball really well today. I felt like we had really good discipline. Nobody had an at-bat that made me cringe.”
The Lady Mustangs struck first in the bottom of the third inning as Castro scorched a double down the left-field line, plating Casey Lester, who led off the inning with an infield single.
The score remained 1-0 until the top of the fifth when Rianda did her first bit of damage, drilling a 1-2 pitch to the left-center gap for an RBI-double to knot things at 1-1.
GHS responded in the bottom half of the inning, getting a bases-loaded, RBI-single from Melanie Morelos, who snuck one over the drawn-in infield.
Totally opposite of the teams’ first meeting this season – a 1-0 San Benito win – the runs kept coming in the bottom of the sixth.
Lester, who went 3 of 3 in the game, drove in Amber Gamboa to give GHS a 3-2 advantage.
The Lady Mustangs tacked on one more run as Michelle Sosa crossed home plate on a wild pitch, providing what seemed to be a comfortable cushion heading into the top of the seventh.
Jessica Steigelman led off the frame with a double before Lira sat down the next two Lady Balers on fly balls. But Rianda had the final say in the inning.
“I was frustrated after the Notre Dame game and I came out at practice yesterday and wanted to prove to Scott that I could do it,” Rianda said. “I just carried that over into the game and just believed in myself.”
Brittany Sparrer plated the winning run off a wild pitch in the ninth.
Despite the loss, the Lady Mustangs will assuredly be playing in the postseason. Seeding for the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs will be announced Saturday night.
“We have four more games,” Berggren said, hinting toward a deep run in the playoffs. “Every game is important now, that’s for sure.”
