Softball: Ayala’s mortality is earth-moving

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The way I figure it, the earth must have shifted on its axis a bit after 2 p.m. on Saturday, because after the world wiggled, the Ayala softball team looked merely mortal.

Ayala, the best high school squad on the planet for the last couple of days, had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning against Sacramento Sheldon. Now you have to understand that Sheldon is No. 4 in the nation in the Fab 50 rankings by StudentSports.com, and this came on the heels of Ayala having already beaten No. 1 La Palma Kennedy, No. 2 Corona Santiago, and No. 21 Sparks (Nev.) Spanish Springs.

The mere fact that Ayala had scored three runs and had a lead on Sheldon late in the game is notable in itself.

Going into the tournament Ayala wouldn’t have cracked a list of the top 200 teams nationally. That has clearly changed with the sudden emergence of sophomore pitcher Jessica Hall, and the Ruthian impersonation of junior shortstop Nani St. Germain, who added a fourth home run of the tournament on Saturday.

My favorite team since Friday night, Ayala gave up four runs in the bottom of the sixth to Sheldon and lost, 5-3. Sheldon went on to the finals and lost to Florida powerhouse Pembroke Pines, 1-0, which can go back to Ft. Lauderdale happy that it didn’t have to play Ayala on Thursday, Friday or Saturday before 2 p.m.

So after losing to Sheldon in the semifinals, Ayala then dropped the third-place game to No. 20 El Modena, 3-1. Like I said, the earth clearly must have shifted on its axis.

-- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.tiltedearth.org