The Pride of Morgan Hill 12 and Under Green team continues to
play solid softball and is making waves in the pool of Amateur
Softball Association teams.
The Pride of Morgan Hill 12 and Under Green team continues to play solid softball and is making waves in the pool of Amateur Softball Association teams.
In the Salinas tournament, the Pride won two games and tied two games against solid teams before finally running out of steam in the semifinals against the Gilroy Chaos.
In the first game of the tournament against the Gilroy Chaos Blue, Alyssa Vuckevich showed skill and a bit of daring wit at third base by playing in close with the bases loaded. She made a nice grab on a high bouncer, threw home for one out and catcher Didi Lopez quickly threw to Ali Stoner for an inning-ending double play.
Gilroy held a 1-0 lead before the Pride struck in the second inning. Katie Machado walked and stole second base and used some nice baserunning to score from second on an infield single by Kayla Cisneroz. Cisneroz then stole three straight bases to give the Pride a 2-1 lead.
With the game tied at 2-2 in the fourth, Lopez walked and moved to third on a hit by Machado. Amanda Valdez followed with a single to right field to score both Lopez and Machado to take a 4-2 lead and a great pitching effort by Yessi Ceja and Brianna Anglikowshi helped the Pride win the game.
In the Pride’s second game of the tournament, the team battled tough against the eventual tournament winners, the San Jose Quicksilver.
The Pride took a 1-0 lead in the first with walks to Cisneroz and Vukcevich and a pair of groundouts scored Cisneroz.
Machado showed off her glove while in the pitching circle in the bottom of the first. There was a line shot right back at her that she knocked into the air with her glove, then turned around and gloved the ball for the out to end the inning.
With the score tied at 1-1 in the third, Stoner delivered an infield single and took second on a throwing error. She moved to third on a ground ball and scored when Machado lifted a single to left center to make it 2-1.
Valdez followed with at single to score Machado and after a double steal, Cisneroz reached first on a throwing error by the catcher.
Thanks to some great base running, all three runners eventually scored to make it 5-1 Pride.
In the fourth inning, Valdez reached when she hit a fly ball to right field and moved to second on a sacrifice by Cisneroz. She scored on a single by Vuckevich and the Pride ended up taking a 7-1 lead.
But by the end of the fifth inning, errors, hits and walks allowed the Quicksilver to erase that deficit and tie it up at 7-7 and the game ended in a tie.
The Pride had another tie in its third game, as it faced the tough Santa Clara PAL team.
With no score in the top of the second, Valdez doubled to right field. Megan Perez , Shawnee Davis and Vukcevich all walked and Ceja, who leads the team with a .485 batting average, hit a bases loaded triple to deep right field to make the score 4-0 Pride.
In the third inning, Pati Monterrey had an infield single to third base, Perez walked again and Lopez came through with a triple to left field to make it 6-1 Pride.
Ceja pitched two shutout inning against the tough PAL hitters, but in a virtual repeat of game two, the Pride watched its 6-1 lead get wiped out by walks, hits and several errors as PAL tied it up at 6-6 and that’s how it ended.
With the two tough ties and one win, the Pride was surprised to be the top seed entering Sunday’s game against the Gonzales Rampage.
With nice pitching by Ceja, the score remained tied through four innings until Lopez walked, stole second and scored on a single to center field by Ceja.
Gonzales scored twice in the top of the fifth to take a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Pride’s bats came alive. Monterrey reached base on an error and Perez, serving as a pinch-runner, quickly stole two bases and scored on a single to left center field by Machado, who continues to lead the Pride with a .593 on base percentage and has a .421 batting average.
Machado stole second and third and scored as Valdez took first on an error by the catcher. Lopez walked and Ceja came through again with a single to left field. Ali Stoner then singled to left center field and Lopez scored for a 5-2 Pride lead.
With runners on second and third, Annika Camacho slapped a single to center field for two RBIs and a 7-2 lead and Monterrey doubled to left field and Camacho stole home for an 8-2 final.
The semifinal game pitted the Pride against the Gilroy Chaos White. They struggled throughout the game and lost a one-sided contest to allow Gilroy to advance to the finals against the Quicksilver, which was won by the Quicksilver to claim the tournament championship.
Next up for the Pride is the Northern California championship at the Twin Creeks Sports Complex in Sunnyvale.
