Rodriguez tops Whitney, reaches SJS finals
SACRAMENTO — The Rodriguez High softball team came into the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III winner’s bracket finals averaging more than 10 runs per game.
Whitney of Rocklin limited the Mustangs’ scoring to one inning, but one was enough. Rodriguez pushed across four unearned runs in the top of the third and Brenna Mitchell made them stand up for a 4-1 victory at the Sacramento Softball Complex on Tuesday.
The Mustangs (27-3), ranked 16th in the state, fourth in Division II and first in the Sac-Joaquin Section by Calhisports.com/ESPNRise, play Whitney again for the title today at the Sacramento Softball Complex at 5 p.m.
The Wildcats (25-6), who downed Pioneer of Woodland 8-3 in the loser’s bracket final, would have to defeat Rodriguez twice today to win the title.
“Overall it was a good game,” Mustangs coach Tracy Cordes said. “Brenna did a good job. The defense stayed calm no matter what happened.”
Mitchell got things going in the third when her grounder went under the glove of second baseman Alexandra Rodriguez for an error. After pinch runner Brianna Wilson was sacrificed to second by Destiny Campbell and took third on a wild pitch, leadoff batter Kiara Garcia walked.
Charlotte Galzotte then grounded back to pitcher Taylor Cotton who turned and fired to third baseman Kayli Shaw, but Wilson dove back in ahead of the throw to load the bases.
That brought up Cheyenne Cordes, who lined a single up the middle to score Wilson. However, Garcia stopped after rounding third, but Galzote didn’t stop at second, causing Garcia to get tagged out in a rundown.
Marissa Escalante picked up her teammate by fisting a double down the left field line that plated Galzote and Cordes. Gabby Lopez rounded things out by doubling over left fielder Megan Mello, who appeared to have a bead on it, pinch runner Kelsey Stone scoring on the play.
Whitney’s lone run was a booming home run by Darian Harris to lead off the bottom of the fourth.
Mitchell allowed four base runners the rest of the way, one on Cordes’ first error of the season, but the shortstop later turned two double plays, one to end the game.
Reach Paul Farmer at 425-4646 Ext. 264 or pfarmer@dailyrepublic.net.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=49739
Posted by Paul Farmer
on May 24 2011.
Filed under High school. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
