Team News - Women's Softball
Ohlone women let one get away
Game one
By Biff Jones.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 — Tri-City Voice.
Ohlone Lady Renegades traveled to San Jose May 12 - 13 to take on the San Jose City College Jaguars in the second round of the 2007 California Community College State Softball Championship Tournament. NorCal number five seed Ohlone and number four seed SJC would play a best two out of three games to determine which team advances to the state finals May18-20 at Big League Dreams in SoCal's Chino Hills.
At the first game on Saturday at 2 p.m., Ohlone opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first as lead-off hitter, Valerie Briones, led off the game with a bunt single. After a successful sacrifice bunt by Jessica Soderholm moving Briones to second, followed by an out, Briones scored on an infield error when designated player, Tiffany Chan, put the ball in play and beat the throw to first. SJC would answer with a run of their own in the bottom of the first only to see the Renegades go up again by one run in the top of the second inning. The score stayed 2-1 Ohlone, before the Jaguars scored two in the bottom of the third and another run in the bottom of the fifth to go up 4-2.
Meanwhile, Ohlone ace pitcher and team captain, Isabel Ramos, was struggling. She would quickly get in front of SJC hitters with 0-2 counts, but could not put them away, as Jaguars' hitters would either work a base on balls or come up with a base hit while behind in the count. At the same time City pitcher, Debbie Duran, would face the minimum of nine batters over the middle three innings, as the Lady Renegade hitters could only manage a single by first baseman, Cassandra Ortega, and she was thrown out when caught stealing in the top of the third.
Finally, the Ohlone bats, helped by a Jaguar error, broke through in the top of the sixth when they scored four times to take a 6-4 lead. After one out Chan and second baseman Kassandra Winger each singled, third baseman Raquel Torres reached on an error to load the bases. Pinch hitter, Danielle Sommer, then was hit by the first pitch she saw to drive in a run. Up stepped Ramos and she delivered a bases clearing, three run double to aid her own cause.
SJC went quietly in the bottom of the sixth before Ohlone would threaten in the top of the seventh as lead-off hitter Ortega hit a triple down the right field line. Despite a runner on third with no one out, the Renegades could not get the insurance run home.
With a 6-4 lead, Ramos went to work in the bottom of the seventh by retiring the first batter she faced. Up stepped Jaguars' left fielder and relief pitcher, Tiana King, three for three on the day with three singles. No single this time as she deposited a Ramos pitch over the center field fence to make the score 6-5 Ohlone. The next batter grounded to shortstop Soderholm, who fielded the ball cleanly, but threw wildly to first. City now had a runner on first with one out and trailed by one run. Again Ramos bore down and came up with a strikeout for the second out of the inning as the Jaguars' base runner stole second to get into scoring position. After a hit batsman put the potential winning run on base, SJC batters delivered consecutive hits to win the game.
This was only the second time all year that Ohlone gave up more than six runs in a game, the first was a come-from-behind victory, 9-8 over Fresno City College, and it puts them at the brink of elimination for the season. They would now have to win two games on Sunday or spend the remainer of the spring finishing papers and studying for finals, and it would not include practicing or playing softball.
Season's end
By Steve Warga.
After the "good game, good game, good game …" ceremony at home plate, Coach Donna Runyon walked over to the team dugout and addressed her crestfallen players. Ever the practical-minded matriarch, Runyon knew there was only one way to deal with the immediate impact of a heart-breaking loss, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
"If you had the scorecards last, put them away first, please." What else could she say that her team didn't already know? A base-running error at third opened the door to a game and season-ending double play. And that was that.
After letting game one get away on Saturday, the Renegades came ready to bag the Jaguars at high noon in San Jose. Tiffany Chan took the mound and pitched a very stingy game in the early going. Meanwhile, the offense showed good discipline and patience in scoring a bases-loaded walk for the first run of the game.
In the second inning, fans might have noticed a dark cloud gathering over third base for the Lady Renegades, one that would hover there to that final, mental-error ending. It was in the second that a normally sure-handed Raquel Torres missed first one chance, than another to allow runners into scoring position.
On a ground-out to first, the Jaguars runner on third chugged home way too slow. After snaring the relay, Catcher Meredith Ang could have painted her nails before making the tag. She properly blocked the plate and the runner tried sliding around Ang's tag; no dice. She's out and the Renegades headed for the dugout. But wait! From the Jaguar side, a stream of players erupted to congratulate their teammate for tying the game.
Apparently the home plate umpire decided to reverse his call when he noticed Ang losing control of the ball after the runner was called out! In fact, she "lost" control of the ball while rolling it against the runner's back on the far side of home plate. That call and some highly questionable ball and strike calls, from the same umpire, would make all the difference in this hard-fought affair. Final score: Jaguars 3, Lady Renegades 2.
Just as Coach Runyon requested, the Lady Renegades packed their gear and did it right, as they have done all season long. They finished 36-10 while collecting their fifth straight conference title. They'll take another run at a state title next year and they'll keep doing it right to the very end. It's the Ohlone way.
