After wild game two win, Griffs’ great season ended by SBCC

2016 GROSSMONT COLLEGE SOFTBALL

 

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

 

EL CAJON (5-9-16) — Talk about an epic comeback!  Then a crashing halt to the season long ride.

 

KATIE SCHMIDT (Valhalla), McKENZIE REYNOLDS (Santana) and ARISA ROSADO (Olympian) all had a pair of RBI in the wild first game of the day (game two of the three game series).

 

After Santa Barbara (30-12) scored a run in the top of the first, Grossmont (27-14-1) came back and scored one of their own.  SIERRA SALAZAR (Helix) walked and moved up to second on a passed ball.  Two outs later she was on third.  RACHEL EVERETT (Bonita Vista) doubled to right field allowing Salazar to walk home with the run.

 

Fast forwarding to the fifth inning, AMANDA IZZO (Hemet) reached second on a throwing error by the Vaquero pitcher with one out.  Schmidt flew out to the right fielder at the foul pole.  Izzo was a heads up runner and tagged and came around to score on the play for a 2-1 Griffin lead.

 

The wheels came off the tracks for the Griffins in the top of the sixth.  SBCC put five runs on the board after a very crucial error by a Griffin infielder.  The Vaqueros weren’t done there.  They put another two runs on the board to take an 8-2 lead going to the bottom of the seventh.

 

After coach DOUG HARTUNG got the team for a meeting in front of the Griffin dugout.

 

Whatever he said worked.  With one out, Salazar was hit by a pitch to get the rally going.  Izzo reached on a fielder’s choice that eliminated Salazar at second.  Schmidt singled through the left side to put runners on first and second.  Everett walked to load the bases.  Then the key hits came.  First an RBI single by SOPHIA SAHAGUN (Heritage Christian), then Reynolds comes through with a 2 RBI single.  Rosado tripled to the deepest part of the park clearing the bases and then finally, JESSICA RUBIO singled to shortstop.  When the dust settled, the Griffins had come all the way back from being down six to tying the game up.  All with two outs.

 

The top of the eighth saw Santa Barbara go 1-2-3.

 

With one out, Izzo tripled to center field.  Schmidt then hit a bloop single down the right field line to score Izzo and the best come-from-behind victory in several years.

 

With the win, the Griffin had forced a game three to break the tie (Santa Barbara had won the first game of the series on Saturday).

 

Santa Barbara was the designated home team in the final game of the series as they won the coin flip.

 

The Vaqueros didn’t waste any time putting runs on the board.  The Central Coast residents scored four times in the bottom of the fourth inning.

 

The top of the third saw the Griffins break through.  Salazar busted through with her second home run of the season to bring the score 4-1 Santa Barbara.

 

After SBCC added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Griffins were successful in scoring again.

 

Everett singled to the shortstop to get the inning underway.  Sahagun grounded out to first base, while Everett moved up to second.  Reynolds followed that with a walk.  Ball four got away from the Catcher allowing Everett to get to third.  Rosado reached on a fielder’s choice as the throw went to home to jettison Everett.  Rubio singled up the middle to load the bases with two outs.  DIAMOND MEJIA (West Ranch) walked to force in Reynolds to make it 6-2 SBCC.

 

The bottom of the sixth saw the Vaqueros score another pair of runs to close out the scoring at 8-2.

 

Santa Barbara will now move onto the CCCAA Super Regionals at Santiago Canyon.  Should they emerge from the Super Regional they will qualify for the State Championships in Bakersfield the weekend of May 20-22.

 

 

Santa Barbara  8

Grossmont  9

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