The Morgan Hill Pride 12 and Under Green will be competing this
weekend in the Northern California fastpitch softball
championships. After making it to the semifinals in Salinas last
weekend, the Pride qualified for NorCals and look forward to a very
competitive trip to the prestigious championship this weekend.
The Morgan Hill Pride 12 and Under Green will be competing this weekend in the Northern California fastpitch softball championships. After making it to the semifinals in Salinas last weekend, the Pride qualified for NorCals and look forward to a very competitive trip to the prestigious championship this weekend.
In Salinas, the Pride were led by Samantha Bejarano, who pitched three games in Salinas and had seven strike-outs and five put-outs in the semifinal against the top-seeded Santa Cruz Mountain Dream.
Catherine Molnar, Katie Machado and Priscilla Orona led the team in hitting for the tournament, and key defensive plays were made by Nikita Patel, Jacey Turay, Sarah Bernardini and Kayla Cisneroz. The Pride turned to speed on the bases to win a key game with clutch baserunning by Alyssa Vuckevich, Brianna Anglikowski, Didi Lopez and Vivianna Rocha.
The Pride will be taking on the best teams in Northern California this weekend and will be looking to qualify for regional and national championships in Las Vegas and Washington state.
Gilroy 14U softball team takes second at tourney
The Gilroy Stanford Cardinal 14-and-under fastpitch softball team placed second at the 11-team Tournament of Fun in Turlock June 11-12.
Despite the offensive power of Kristy Pineda, Alisa Castro and Emily Castro, the Cardinal fell in the championship game to Modesto’s Valley Heat, 13-10 in extra innings.
The following Cardinal players received awards before the championship game for maintaining a 3.0 GPA or higher: Ashley Hernandez, Mandy Lafuente, Ally McClintic, Sarah Sendejas, Julie Wallace and Liz Wallace.
In pool play, the Cardinal lost its first game 9-0 to Stockton’s Team Action, who would go on to be the top-seeded team in the pool after play on Saturday. The Cardinal bounced back with two shutout wins, a 10-0 victory against the Stockton Blue Heat and a 7-0 victory against the Turlock West Side Bullets. Ashley Harrington pitched the back-to-back shutouts for the Cardinal.
The Cardinal was led by Pineda, Alisa Castro and Emily Castro and received solid clutch hitting and overall play from Jessica Clancy, Antoinette Charles, McClintic, Kaitlin Muraoka, Sendejas, Julie Wallace and Liz Wallace.
In single-elimination play Sunday, the Cardinal defeated the Stockton Diamond girls 5-0 with Harrington on the mound. She won three of four decisions over the weekend.
Sunday’s rematch game with Team Action proved to be the Cardinal’s best outing of the weekend. The Cardinal controlled the game and went on to win, 6-3, avenging their 9-0 loss on Saturday. The Cardinal girls all worked hard as a team to shut down a very determined Team Action.
The team is managed by Joe Hernandez and coached by Dennis Castro, Gerry Wallace and Aurelio Sendejas.
