Sobrato’s softball games get a little more interesting when Heather Johnson is on base; the senior shortstop can swipe a bag almost at will with her speed and cat-like quickness, turning a bunt single into extra bases.
“When she’s on, she’s in the zone,” catcher Mackenzie Mitchell said.
What adds to the excitement is knowing Sobrato has the bats to bring Johnson home.
With the way Samantha Torres was pitching, that was all the Bulldogs needed to do to beat Prospect 1-0 Wednesday and take another step toward their first league championship and postseason.
Mitchell drove in Johnson during the third inning on a sacrifice fly that stood as the difference in a crucial game between the Santa Teresa Division co-leaders.
“I was just trying to get a sac fly to hit her in or hit it on the ground to get an error,” Mitchell said. “I know she’s fast and can get an RBI.”
Johnson went 2 for 2 with a walk, a triple and added three more stolen bases to her league-high 23.
“We were trying to keep their leadoff hitter off the bases, and she ended up getting on three times again,” Panthers manager Jason Potmesil said. “Last game, we walked her, and we walked her again today in the first at-bat.”
Prospect loaded the bases with one out in the fourth and had runners at second and third with one out in the fifth but could not land a big hit against Torres, who struck out three and ate up innings with her drop pitches and low heaters.
“I know when I do something wrong, my dad tells me to keep a short memory,” Torres said. “So you forget about it, but you don’t completely forget it.”
The freshman didn’t lose anything on her fastball as the game went on. Torres sent the Panthers down in order in the sixth and seventh to complete a five-hit shutout, her fourth of the season. She threw 89 pitches.
“I put so much intensity into it,” Torres said. “We want the division title so badly. You want to do it for yourself; you want to do it for the team; you want to do it for the school. You give it everything you can.”
Prospect senior Amanda Llerena was just as dominant with nine strikeouts to three hits, two walks and one hit batter. She averages 12.5 strikeouts a game.
“Any total below double digits is low for her,” Potmesil said. “They’re very aggressive on the basepaths … and they were able to bring one in as a result of that.”
It was a great start to a pivotal week for the Bulldogs, who will host the third-best team in the division, Evergreen Valley, at 4 p.m. Friday for Senior Day at SHS. Sobrato swept the season series with Prospect and can clinch at least a share of the division title by winning two of their final three games.
The Bulldogs (13-4, 10-1) have enjoyed their best season in program history but are still driven, in part, by their one league loss suffered April 25 at Lincoln.
“They were angry,” SHS manager Gene Ciraulo said. “They kind of are again after today. This was such a pressure cooker and such a big game that they didn’t play their best, and they’re looking forward to Friday. … They really want to win at home on Senior Day, although that’s not the primary focus. They want to win league.”
Torres said her team took a valuable lesson from the Lincoln game:
“We don’t want to have that feeling again.”
