Mistakes, Bernalillo heavy hitters doom S.F. Indian School
Julia Beyale doesn’t mind the term “slap hitter.” It’s her job. As the ninth and last hitter in the Bernalillo Lady Spartans softball lineup, Beyale understands her job quite well — slap the ball on the ground and run like the wind. She is the conventional lead-off hitter in a not-so-conventional lineup.
“I know my job is to get on [base],” Beyale said. “The top of our lineup are really big hitters, so my job is to get on them hit me in.”
Beyale did that and a little more Thursday in a key District 5-4A game against Santa Fe Indian School at the SFIS athletic complex. She went 3-for-4, scored a run and drove in another to help Bernalillo clinch the program’s sixth straight district title with an 8-2 win. The last two of the Lady Spartans’ run came in 5-4A, while the previous four came in 2-5A (2-4A until 2014).
As for Beyale, she showed that Bernalillo (20-4 overall, 4-0 in 5-4A) is more than just the monstrous top-four hitters opponents face. In the Lady Spartans’ 19-3 win over the Lady Braves (16-3, 2-2) on April 12, the quartet of Gaby Montoya, Angelica Navarro, Shauncey Masawiestewa and Mia Montaño were a combined 11-for-13 with four home runs, 13 RBIs and 14 runs scored.
This time around, they were a combined 6-for-16 and Montoya and Montaño each had a pair of hits. That required Bernalillo to find other ways of creating runs, especially as the heart of the lineup was relatively quiet after a four-run outburst in the opening frame.
“That’s the cool thing about this lineup,” said Lady Spartans head coach Manuel Montaño. “If one is down, the other ones will pick it up, and that’s important.”
It was extremely important when SFIS scored twice with two outs in the fifth inning to get within 5-2 at that point. The Lady Braves faithful finally had something to cheer for when Jayda Lucario executed a delayed steal from third after Ariana Trujillo stole second for a run, then Masawiestewa had a throwing error when she tried to pick off Trujillo at third that allowed the Lady Braves second basemen to score the second run of the inning.
“Their confidence level is progressing,” said SFIS head coach Oliver Torres. “The last game, we got beat 19-3, and they felt like, ‘They
blew us out of the waters. We’re not even close to them.’ I had to try explaining to them about all the things that went their way and the mistakes we made. If we fix those things, we’ll be in the ball game.”
But it was mistakes that ended up coming back to haunt the Lady Braves, as well as the havoc Beyale wreaked on the basepaths. She beat SFIS third baseman Lauren Bekise’s throw on her slap hit to the left side of the infield, moved to second on a Alexis Garcia wild pitch and reached third on Navarro’s flyout to center with two outs.
Masawiestewa then lofted a fly ball just beyond the infield that Trujillo lost track of and landed about three feet to her right to score Beyale for 6-2 and put runners at second and third. Montaño followed with a two-run double to the left-center field fence for 8-2 and took the pressure off the Lady Spartans.
“That was big,” Beyale said. “When [the Lady Braves] scored, that really pumped them up a lot. So it was good to sit them back down.”
It took away from what had turned into a pitcher’s duel between Masawiestewa and Garcia, who allowed just one run after a rough opening inning that saw Bernalillo plate four runs thanks to its top four hitters. Garcia said she learned from her mistakes in her relief outing against the Lady Spartans and just settled down after the first inning.
After allowing four hits in the first, Garcia surrendered seven over the next 5⅔ innings before she gave way to Trujillo.
“I felt like I could adjust now after what I saw against them in Bernalillo,” Garcia said. “I looked at that game and remember what I did so that I could be better here.”
What SFIS needed to do, though, was string together hits against Masawiestewa, but it only managed four hits on the day. Two of them came in the second inning when Bekise and Garcia each had singles, but Raven Alcott and Lucario grounded out to end the threat.
The fifth inning was fueled by two walks, a hit batter, an error and three stolen bases. When the Lady Braves needed a hit to extend the rally, Bekise struck out.
“I felt like they couldn’t catch [to Masawiestewa’s speed],” Garcia said. “I felt like everybody was kinda nervous, and they need to be more confident about going up to the plate, don’t be stiff, not too tight. Just be calm, relaxed. We just need to throw the bat out there.”
Sort of like how Beyale did. She let her legs do the rest.