Calipatria play-in games break good for softball, bad for baseball
CALIPATRIA — Calipatria Hornet cranks had themselves a twofer on Monday evening, with both of the school’s varsity-level bat-and-ball teams hosting CIF-SDS postseason play-in games starting at 4 p.m.
Fighting for the right to soldier on into their respective tournaments’ main draws, the Lady Hornets faced off against Chula Vista for the right to face fifth-seeded Central Union today in the Division III bracket, and the baseball squad squaring off against the Mission Bay Buccaneers to see who would advance to face sixth-seeded Sweetwater in Division IV.
With the two teams playing on adjacent fields, the doughty, swivel-headed fan, properly situated and loaded up on Dramamine, could keep an eye on both of these games simultaneously, but the games had very distinct personalities — with the softball team handling its business in a breezy, straightahead 5-0 win, while on the baseball diamond the Hornets suffered a protracted, 19-5, letdown.
It was, to crib from Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times, truly — smiles and sunshine vs. grimaces and … still sunshine (this is the Valley after all).
Starting with the smiles: Things could hardly have gone much better for the softball team. They controlled their game from top to bottom announcing themselves as a legitimate playoff team, despite it being their first time competing in the postseason at this Division III level after years at Division IV.
They looked comfortable against Chula Vista — every inch the team that’s won 11 of their last 13 games, as opposed to the one that started out the year 0-8.
Calipatria set the tone early with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman Emily Hernandez got things going with pure grit taking one on the shoulder to lead things off and ignite the rally, coming home on a quick double by number-two hitter Desiree Romero to draw first blood.
Romero scored not long thereafter on a loud Sadie Chavez triple (following a Delaney Hernandez groundout) and Chavez plated herself a few pitches later on a passed ball to make it 3-0.
Those were the last runs of the game for a while as Chula Vista’s Morgan Quinlan started to get into her groove, but that was A-OK because Hornet starter Emily Gamboa (another freshman) was doing work in the circle — backed up by a rock-solid defense, of course.
She ended up throwing seven economical shutout innings, and was rarely in any major peril, giving up only four hits all game.
Her team gave her a couple of insurance runs late (one in the fifth and one in the sixth) the first coming on an infield single dribbled down the thirdbase line by Delaney Hernandez to score Emily after she had reached on a walk and gone over to third on a Romero single, and the last one coming when Emily squeezed home Alyssa Romero after the latter singled and stole two bases.
As previously stated, the win against Chula Vista pits the Hornets up against Central, next. The two teams are scheduled to play later today at 6:30 p.m. in El Centro.
Speaking after the game Calipat senior Sadie Chavez said she’s looking forward to the matchup saying that she’s “happy to get another local game … and to play another Valley team because we usually only play Vincent Memorial” (also “because I don’t feel like traveling.”)
Chavez recognizes that defeating the IVL co-champion Spartans is a big ask, but thinks that she and her teammates are game to give it a shot. “We started out real slow this season,” she said, “But we’ve come together and we’re in a good place (now). (Central’s) a real big power hitting team. I just hope we play well.”
All there really is to say about the baseball game is that the pitching just wasn’t in it for the long hall.
Calipat’s staff ace, senior Antonio Juarez, wasn’t available to throw due to CIF workload restrictions, as he threw over 50 pitches in the Hornets’ Manzanita League clinching win over the Vincent Memorial Scots on Thursday, necessitating that he take four rest days.
Junior Carlos Quintana got the start in his stead and kept the Hornets in it until the fifth inning,
when he exited with his team up 5-4. His relief, consisting of Oscar Cervantes, Marco Perez, Julian Lyerly and Xavier Banaga had a rough time of it.
The Buccaneers scored six runs in the fifth and another nine in the top of the seventh to take a competitive game and drive it to blowout land.
There were some highlights for the home team, including a mammoth solo-shot from Juarez in the second inning, but eventually they all got buried under an avalanche of Mission Bay doubles and triples.
Speaking after the game first-year Hornet coach CJ Perez offered this valedictory statement: “These boys came a long way … they had to learn a new system this year, but they were willing to do it. They turned it around tremendously from last year to this year, and that’s huge not just for this season, but for the coming seasons. That score up there doesn’t show what these boys have been putting into the program. They battled their tails off all game and all season.”