After doubling home the tying run in the fourth, and later
scoring the go-ahead run in the same inning, Jessica Vest fouled
off seven straight offerings from Alyssa Razo in the sixth before
blasting a two-run moonshot to left field, boosting the Balers to a
4-1 win over Salinas in the Central Coast Section Division I
quarterfinals on Saturday.
SALINAS
Jessica Vest never saw a pitch she didn’t like in her at-bat against Salinas’ Alyssa Razo on Saturday.
“I kind of liked them all,” the San Benito junior shortstop said.
After doubling home the tying run in the fourth, and later scoring the go-ahead run in the same inning, Vest fouled off seven straight offerings from Razo in the sixth before blasting a two-run moonshot to left field, boosting the Balers to a 4-1 win over Salinas in the Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinals on Saturday.
“She has such good eye-hand coordination that everything she swings at, she hits fair,” San Benito manager Scott Smith said of Vest’s nine-pitch at-bat against Razo. “And we were saying, ‘Hey, they’re tough pitches, just try to lay off a little and foul them off.’
“And she did that so well there, with those tough pitches that she was fouling off, that she finally got a mistake pitch and hit a home run. It was the best at-bat she’s had all year.”
The victory moves the four-time CCS champs one step closer to properly defending its title for a fifth straight time. The top-seeded Lady Balers (23-4) will square off against No. 4 Wilcox (19-10) on Tuesday at PAL Stadium in San Jose.
First pitch is 7 p.m.
It will be the third time since last season’s Division I semifinal the two powerhouse softball teams have met. The Lady Balers defeated the Chargers 1-0 last season to advance to the CCS title game, and topped them again by a 4-1 margin on April 10 at the Mission City Invitational.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s game at the Salinas Sports Complex was the third time San Benito squared off against the No. 9 Cowboys (13-12) this season, and the Cowboys nearly proved it to be the charm.
A pair of singles by Brianna Pacis and Jaynie MacDonald supplied Salinas with an early 1-0 lead after just one half-inning of play.
“I think I could have done better today, keeping the ball down and getting my team more ground balls,” said junior pitcher Paige Miguel, who tossed a pair of complete games against Salinas earlier this season, both wins for San Benito. “I was getting the ball up. But I hit my spots better after the first inning.”
Miguel’s pitching counterpart for Salinas was throwing like a one-run lead would be enough, though. Razo had a no-hitter through three complete innings.
“She mixed up her pitches pretty well,” Smith said of Razo. “But the key for us against her is we have got to make her throw the ball over the plate. I thought the umpire’s strike zone was fair, but early in the game we swung at pitches out of the zone.
“We were overaggressive early. And in the middle to the end of the game, we started being patient. That was the difference.”
San Benito’s first hit off Razo didn’t come until the bottom of the fourth inning when Marissa Adame lined a triple to the left-center field gap, setting up Vest’s game-tying RBI double down the left-field line just one batter later.
Vest then stole third base standing up, and induced a throwing error in the process to plate the go-ahead run with ease.
“We were staying up the whole game in the dugout,” Miguel said of the early deficit for the Lady Balers. “But it always gets more exciting when we start hitting the ball and it always picks up when someone gets that big hit.”
Following MacDonald’s RBI single in the first, Miguel only allowed two base runners — one reached on a fielding error — until the sixth inning, when Salinas put two runners on with two outs. But the junior pitcher induced one of her 13 ground-ball outs to end the threat, which turned out to be the Cowboys’ last chance to tie the game.
Vest provided some much-needed insurance with one swing in the bottom half of the inning — a two-run homer to left field that scored Samantha Puentes.
“[Razo] was throwing outside. But we figured if we moved up on the plate, she would come inside,” said Vest, who battled off several inside pitches before lifting a two-run homer. “When they realized I was up on the plate, they tried to jam me inside.”
With just one senior on the team, Saturday’s quarterfinal was the first playoff game for many on San Benito. But with Saturday’s win, it won’t be their last.
“I think it made everyone grow up a lot,” Vest said of the one-run deficit. “By getting down in the first inning, that put pressure on us right away, and we had to grow up.”
