Vanden rallies to beats Vacaville

Two-run single by Mia Santos clinches a Viking victory

Vanden High head softball coach Anthony Trujillo played a hunch. If he were a betting man, he couldn’t have called it any better.

His Vikings softball team had just given up four runs in the bottom of the sixth to home team Vacaville High to fall behind 4-3 facing its final at-bat.

Trujillo brought in Ayana Frank to lead off the inning as a pinch hitter. She smoked an opposite-field single to right to ignite a two-run Viking rally to beat the Bulldogs, 5-4.

The win kept Vanden undefeated in the Monticello Empire League with a 6-0 mark, while Vacaville fell to 3-3.

Trujillo said he never felt comfortable, even after Vanden had built a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the sixth on a two-run homer from Destiny Harris in the second and an RBI ground out from Tai Wilson in the fifth to score Sonya Rogers, who had doubled and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice.

Aubrey Gibson led off the home half of the sixth win a pinch-hit walk. Acacia Anders and Xochil Atayde slapped consecutive opposite-field singles to left to load the bases with no out. Then a throwing error past first on a grounder by Erin Wiesman allowed all three runners to score, Anders sprinting hard all the way from first and sliding home to tie the game.

Mikalya Freshour followed with a hard single to right-center to make it 4-3 Bulldogs. It looked like she would be the hero for Vacaville.

But Vanden had a hero of its own waiting in the wings in the top of the seventh — Mia Santos.

Frank’s leadoff single was the key to the inning.

“Every time I stepped out of the box I was nervous,” admitted the freshman. It was her first hit of the season.

“That little girl has been banging the ball at practice so I just felt like, let’s take a chance and see,” said Trujillo. “That was big, big, big. Especially going to right field, that’s what we work on. It was just a beautiful thing to see her execute like that because the girl hasn’t had a lot of playing time, only maybe two at-bats. And then I threw her in that situation right there and then you add the drama on top. I just felt like it was her time.”

After Frank’s single, Mia Zabat laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Frank to second. Wilson, Vanden’s speedy leadoff hitter, bunted for a hit to put men on first and third. That brought

up Santos, who had hit the ball solidly all game.

On a designed play, she faked a bunt and took a pitch as Wilson swiped second.

Trujillo said he thought about having Santos bunt on the next pitch, without sending the runner from third, to try to load up the bases.

“But she was barreling the ball up all day and they were finding the gloves,” said Trujillo. “I was kind of feeling that… I felt like she was hitting it today.”

He let her swing away, and again his hunch proved prophetic. The left-handed swinging Santos drilled a hard single to left to score both runners and give Vanden its final margin of victory. Santos’ hit came with two strikes, but she said she was not nervous.

“I was calm,” said the solid number two hitter. “I try to be calm all the time.”

Vacaville righthander Atayde and Vanden southpaw Hazyl Gray both pitched very well. Gray, after that tough sixth inning, honed in in the final frame with two strikeouts to give her 13 on the day. She allowed five hits and walked just one batter.

Atayde scattered ten hits and showed excellent control, walking just one.

Harris made her pay with her two-run dinger off a changeup. She also doubled in the fourth inning.

“I did really bad when we played at Rodriguez on Wednesday,” said Harris. “I went and I hit before the game today with my dad in the backyard. I was telling myself, ‘I’m not hitting bad today. I’m going to square the ball up.’ So that was pretty cool… I figured out what I was doing wrong.”

She was not fooled by the changeup.

“I was looking fastball but I kind of knew she was going to throw me a changeup,” said Harris. “She had thrown the changeup to Shawnese (Hogue-Lacy) before, so I just thought she had it in her back pocket.”

Santos and Hogue-Lacy had two hits apiece for the Vikings, each collecting a double. Atayde singled twice for the Bulldogs.

“They showed great character,” said Trujillo of his team. “I was proud of them, coming back like that.”