Cardinals beat Wolves in crosstown matchup
Sometimes, life prevails over sports, as was the case this week at Tyson Miller Memorial Field in Woodland.
The Woodland High School varsity softball team (10-12) traveled across town on Thursday night for a matchup against local rival, Woodland Christian (12-8), in the respective regular season finale. The Cardinals defeated the Wolves 12-8 but that was the least of both team's concerns.
Before the game began Thursday, Emma Barron was honored by all three Woodland high school varsity softball teams, including former teammates of Barron who currently play at Pioneer. Barron committed suicide in 2022 and would have been a freshman at Woodland High this year.
“We had a very unique opportunity to be able to help Woodland High and have a ceremony for her,” said Woodland Christian coach Christie Miller. “It was awesome to have two Woodland teams play against each other. The community comes together in times like that. I think that was really important and hopefully her family found some healing through all of that.”
According to Wolves coach Paul Vietti, a scholarship has been created in honor of Barron. The scholarship is for $500 starting this year through 2025, to be given to a Woodland High softball player annually. The scholarship will increase to $1,000 in 2026 when Barron would've been a high school senior.
“Emma played a lot of youth softball all the way up,” Vietti explained. “We've been wanting to do this for a while. We were able to finally put it together towards the end of the year. She's played with a lot of these girls. It was a really emotional game for a lot of these girls.
“Her number is 23 and we are retiring that jersey for the four years that she would've been at Woodland High School.”
After the back-and-forth contest, the two teams stood in front of the pitcher's circle, behind Barron's No. 23 that was painted onto the field. Both Woodland teams then welcomed the Barron family into the outfield for a postgame prayer in front of Emma's name and number that were featured on the fence in center field.
Thursday's game was played in Barron's honor. The crosstown matchup was scoreless after two innings.
The Cardinals struck first, scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning. The Wolves responded with one in the top of the fourth frame but still trailed 3-1. Woodland Christian added to its lead with three more runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, to take a commanding 9-1 advantage.
Woodland High refused to concede, scoring a staggering seven runs in the top of the sixth inning to trim its deficit to one at 9-8. The Cardinals prevented a shut-down frame for the Wolves, adding three more runs in the sixth. Woodland Christian ultimately prevailed 12-8.
“It was very exciting at the beginning because we were tied. We scored a lot and then they started scoring some more so it was getting really stressful. Then I hit a triple, which boosted my confidence at the plate. The second time I hit a single and then we started scoring some more so it was less stressful. It was really fun,” said Cardinals freshman outfielder Kylee Bihlman. “I'm proud that they didn't give up and that we kept fighting.”
Teagan Hayes led the way offensively for Woodland Christian. The superb sophomore catcher went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple, three runs batted in, two runs scored and was hit by a pitch. Bihlman was 2-for-4 with a triple, two RBI and two runs.
Sophomore pitcher Addison Tetreault had a strong day at the plate for Woodland High, going 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run. Tetreault (5-9) suffered the loss in the circle. She tossed six innings, allowing 15 hits, 12 runs (six earned), one walk and one HBP with nine strikeouts on 120 pitches.
Maggie Wurzel (9-4) earned the win for the Cardinals. The freshman pitcher threw 5.1 frames, allowing 11 hits, eight runs (seven earned), three walks and two passed balls on 92 pitches. Junior Emily Garcia pitched in relief, giving up two walks and one hit over 1.2 innings, adding three punch-outs on 38 pitches.
Ten wins is the most in a season for the Wolves since 2014. Despite missing the playoffs, Vietti viewed this season as another building block for Woodland High.
“Last year was another building block. Last year, we won seven games, but we lost six one-run games, so we were really battling,” Vietti said. “So this year, we increased the wins. We didn't quite get over the hump on some of those close games so it's another building block. We take two steps forward, one step back. I think next year we can be even better.”
Three Wolves will be graduating in the Class of 2023: first baseman Hailey Edgington, catcher Marina Montez and outfielder Alyssia Torres.
“It's their whole four years of building that,” Vietti recalled. “Their first year as freshman, they went through the COVID thing and their season got cut off. That was the start of the build. We were putting it together, then the next year, it wasn't really a real season, it was a tough, weird year. The year after that we built upon it, were very close and in the playoff hunt.”
Following another Central Valley California League title, Woodland Christian is postseason bound. However, due to past success of winning the Division VII section in back-to-back seasons and Division VI last year, the Cardinals have been elevated to Division V for the playoffs.
“We definitely have big shoes to fill again,” explained Miller, who is in her first season as head coach. “We've seen really tough competition this week. We played Colusa (on Wednesday) and we won 8-7. Tonight was a fantastic game, our girls played great. It's exciting to see our team's potential and how they've been playing going into next week.”
Woodland Christian is the No. 8 seed in the D5 bracket and face a tough test in the first round, playing at top seed Sutter (251). According to MaxPreps, the Huskies are the third best softball team in the Sac-Joaquin Section, regardless of division.
The Cardinals will play at Sutter on Tuesday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the 2023 CIF SJS D5 Softball Playoffs. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.