Norco beats Roosevelt in walk-off to clinch Big VIII League title

The final steps on the path to winning another Big VIII League championship have not been the easiest ones for the Norco softball team.

For the second straight game, Norco found itself trailing after three innings. But for a second straight time, the Cougars clawed their way to a victory.

Sophomore second baseman Sasha Pham led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a triple and scored the decisive run when she beat a throw to the plate, as the Cougars escaped with a 7-6 win over Roosevelt on Monday afternoon and clinched the Big VIII League title outright.

Last week, Norco scored five unanswered runs to beat King 9-6. Monday, the Cougars trailed Roosevelt 3-0 going to the bottom of the third inning.

“You would like to win them easy, but these kind of wins are going to be important come playoff time,” Norco coach Rick Robinson said. “And what games like this show, more than anything else, is this really is a team effort. It takes contributions from a lot of players to pull out wins like this one.”

Roosevelt (12-9, 6-3 in league) grabbed the lead in the top of the third inning, when Lotolelei Sivas led things off with a triple and scored on a single by Jasmine Goins. Priscilla Llamas then launched a home run well over the wall in right field to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 3-0.

Norco (21-3, 9-0) chipped at the deficit, starting in the bottom half of the third inning. Pham also led off that inning with a triple and scored on a wild pitch. Dakota Potter’s sacrifice fly scored Tamryn Shorter and got the Cougars within 3-2 after three innings.

Norco sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and scored a combined four runs against Roosevelt starter Jazmine Chavez and Llamas to surge ahead. Back-to-back doubles from Ariel Reyes and Leighton Gray knotted the score, and the Cougars took a 4-3 lead when Gray scored on an error. Pham scored on a wild pitch, and Ashley Duran later drew a bases-loaded walk to give Norco a 6-3 advantage.

Roosevelt out-hit the Cougars 14-6 during Monday afternoon’s game, but Norco’s offense took full advantage of seven walks and four wild pitches.

Llamas settled into a rhythm and retired eight straight batters between the fourth and sixth innings. Then it was Roosevelt’s turn to rally. Llamas singled home a run in the top of the fifth inning, and Aubrey Mclaughlin followed with an RBI double to trim the deficit to a single run.

Roosevelt was down to its final out in the top of the seventh, when pinchhitter Joryn Chatman stepped up with a two runners in scoring position. Chatman dropped a single into shallow right, bringing in Goins with the tying run. Mclaughlin was waved around third, but Potter made a perfect throw to catcher Ashlyn Braun to cut down Mclaughlin and end the inning. It was the fourth time Roosevelt had a runner thrown out on the bases.

“I saw her (Mclaughlin) going all the way, so I know I had to throw it as far as I could and as fast as I could,” Potter said of that throw home.

Potter saved another run in the top of the eighth, as she made a running catch in the gap to rob Sivas of extra bases and likely RBI.

Pham, who is the No. 9 hitter in Norco’s lineup, led off the bottom of the eighth with an oppositefield line drive just inside the first base bag.

“I was just thinking about getting the ball in play. I just needed to be smart on the bases,” said Pham, who raced around for her second triple.

Shorter then bounced a ball to Sivas at shortstop. But Pham was off on contact and beat the throw to plate to give Norco the walk-off victory.

Roosevelt dropped into a tie for second place in the league standings with King with one game remaining. Gabe Roman took over the program on an interim basis when Katrina Pinkowski stepped down earlier this month for personal reasons. Roman has coached in the program for a decade.

“Right now, it’s about building up the chemistry and trust between everyone,” Roman said. “This is my 10th year here, so many of these players already know me as they came up through the ranks. There was a feeling of limbo for a few days, but I think a level of comfort now setting in.

“I was very proud of the offense today. We had some really solid hits. Unfortunately, the baserunning mistakes we made proved very costly.”

Peyton May picked up her second straight win out of the bullpen, allowing three runs on nine hits over 5 2/3 inning while striking out seven batters. May tossed five scoreless innings in the victory over King last week. Chavez and Llamas combined to register 10 strikeouts for Roosevelt.

Azusena Lopez went 3 for 4 for Roosevelt, while Goins, Llamas, Sivas and Sequoia Sanchez each had two hits for the Mustangs.