Baler ace Marisa Ibarra ends season with an astonishing 0.60
earned run average
She gets stronger in the late innings. She doesn’t get nervous
in white-knuckle situations. She knows how to get big strikeouts at
the right time, and has the velocity and ball movement to keep
batters dizzy.
Anyone that followed the San Benito High softball team’s
championship season knows that freshman sensation Marisa Ibarra was
a major factor in the Balers first-ever Central Coast Section
title.
Baler ace Marisa Ibarra ends season with an astonishing 0.60 earned run average
She gets stronger in the late innings. She doesn’t get nervous in white-knuckle situations. She knows how to get big strikeouts at the right time, and has the velocity and ball movement to keep batters dizzy.
Anyone that followed the San Benito High softball team’s championship season knows that freshman sensation Marisa Ibarra was a major factor in the Balers first-ever Central Coast Section title.
“She’s really going to be something when she’s a senior,” said Baler coach Scott Smith. “She does everything well out there, which is why she was also named the league’s Most Outstanding Pitcher.”
That award also was a first for San Benito High. With Ibarra slated to work the hill for another three years, the lone high school in Hollister should expect a lot of softball firsts, since its 14-year old pitching ace is already arguably the most dominant pitcher in the region.
Just last Saturday Ibarra wrapped up her stellar first season in high school by tossing her seventh shutout in a row to help propel the No. 3 seed Baler softball team to 1-0 win against No. 12 seed Watsonville in the championship game.
For the season she posted an overall ERA of .060 and had a record of 28-2.
What’s equally as amazing as her record is how fast she’s ascended to the top of the Bay Area high school pitching scene.
Just four years ago, Ibarra was a 10-year old playing third base for the Hollister Heat youth team.
Her dad Leo signed both her and her older sister, Katrina, who moved up from the JV squad to the varsity team for the CCS playoffs, up for the sport.
“Marisa wanted to pitch from the moment we signed her up for softball,” said her father, Leo. “At first, we discouraged it. But then she started throwing in the backyard all the time and wouldn’t stop. I told her I’d support her in whatever way I could.”
That support came in the way of hiring a personal pitching coach to teach her the proper fundamentals and techniques for throwing a softball the right way in order to create the most movement and velocity.
“It’s surprising how quick she took to it,” Ibarra said. “To be as young as she is and have that kind of composure in the CCS championship game is remarkable.”
For Ibarra it was just another day on the mound.
“I wasn’t really nervous out there; I was more excited,” said Ibarra of her one-hit performance in the CCS title game. “I just kept thinking to myself, don’t let them score.”
In her shutout win over Watsonville, only Wildcat pitcher Noemi Torres, a junior, managed to get a hit off Ibarra, who wrapped up the season without allowing a single run since April 29. That was in a 7-5 loss to Live Oak.
In addition to her solid velocity, which hovers in the high 50s low 60s range, the movement Ibarra gets on her pitches is also baffling to aggressive batters.
“I’d say my screwball is my best pitch,” said Ibarra. “It comes towards right-handed batters (and then breaks).”
When she’s not playing softball Ibarra also has an interest in both tennis and volleyball. Last fall, she played doubles on the Baler tennis team and is considering playing volleyball this coming fall.
But her favorite sport is the one she’s best at.
“I want to keep playing in college,” she said.
Although she still has three years of high school ball left, Ibarra’s dream is to someday pitch for the Bruins of UCLA, but first she has to focus on repeating as CCS champions next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.
“Now they’ve got to top that (this year) so the pressure will be on and the expectations will be high,” said her father. “But she should do well.”
