Three Lady Acorns Selected to TCAL All-Star Team
Seniors selected from the all-TCAL team for softball will pit their skills against seniors from the Monterey Bay League in the second annual senior game to be held in Salinas.
The girls of the Tri-County Athletic League won the first senior game last year 3-1 behind a strong performance by Live Oak’s pitching ace Juliette Bowers.
The TCAL will defend its title Wednesday with the help of three Acorns: catcher April Herrera, short stop Alyssa Adamo and Amanda Rosevear.
Herrera and Adamo were both named to the all-TCAL first team.
Typically, players are chosen from the first and second all-league teams and all must be seniors, McDonnell said, but the teams may draw from the honorable mentions.
Taking the helm for the TCAL team is Notre Dame coach Joe Given.
Given and the Vikings recorded an 11-1 league record and won the CCS Division III championships against Valley Christian.
His opponent will be Alvarez skipper Johnny Pineda who took his Eagles to the CCS Division I playoffs where they lost 3-1 to Watsonville.
While the game is solely for pride, organizers said the girls take it as seriously as any other game.
“Practice was more casual, but the game was quite serious,” said Barry McDonnell, head coach the Acorns softball team. “The teams played hard. They are athletes, it is in there blood to try and win, so they played the game competitively.”
Debbie Adamo, Live Oak’s assistant coach and co-founder of the all-star game, said she thought last year’s game would be a blow out, with the pitching talent in the TCAL, but said the MBL gave a strong performance.
“It was a close game,” Adamo said. “I thought the TCAL would cream them with good pitching. But the MBL had good pitching too.”
Wednesday’s game will be the second annual playing of the senior all star competition.
The game is planned to accommodate teams who make the playoffs, Adamo said.
According to Adamo the idea for the contest is several years old, but it wasn’t until last year that they got serious.
Initially, it was planned that only players from both leagues would play in the game, but when the MBL team came up a few players short, a few girls from the Mission Trails Athletic League joined the roster.
This year, McDonnell said, the MBL may have enough people to fill out the positions and won’t need to dip into another league’s players.
“We got started sooner this year, so it should be just MBL (players),” McDonnell said. “Last year, the coach got started late.”
To try to get as many pitchers into the game as possible, last year’s matchup was scheduled for eight innings. McDonnell said the plan for this year is to go a traditional seven innings, but things could change.
Last year, Adamo said the stands in the Salinas Sports Complex were filled with fans from the participating schools. She said that because the game was held in Salinas, fewer Live Oak fans came out to root for the team.
This year, Adamo said she hopes that the turn out will be better for the Acorns.
Cheeto Barrera is an intern at the Morgan Hill Times. He can be reached at cb******@mo*************.com.
