High School Softball: Eagles soar into playoffs
Estancia High Coach Carrie Lester learned the crucial softball game at Costa Mesa was off around noon Friday. A half hour later, she heard it was back on again.
With the Orange Coast League’s third and final guaranteed berth into the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs on the line, Lester didn’t know what to expect next. She just knew her team had to be flexible and ready.
The skies finally cleared up in time to continue the game between the archrivals. It took almost 25 hours for the contest to resume play after rain postponed Thursday’s action with the Eagles up, 7-0, with two outs in the top of the first inning.
While a downpour shortened play the previous day, Estancia’s offense stopped the game early this time around.
The Eagles poured it on with their bats Friday, unleashing 13 more runs to force the league playoff game to end after only five innings. Estancia walloped the Mustangs, 20-5, in a game called early because of the 10-run mercy rule.
The number of runs matched a season high for Estancia (14-9), which clinched its third postseason appearance in as many years under Lester. After her players celebrated, Lester sat them down in shallow right field. She told them that Saturday was her birthday, and the Eagles beating the Mustangs will be her best birthday gift.
The Eagles sang “Happy Birthday” to Lester, who was content that the game went on between two teams tied for third in league. She didn’t want the postseason berth decided by a coin flip.
Her team’s bats determined Estancia’s postseason fate. The Eagles learn whom they play on Monday, when the section releases the playoff pairings.
“My girls hit,” said Lester, whose team collected 22 hits, six for extra bases on Costa Mesa’s Ariana Morales. “They hit hard. They put it to the fence, over the fence. We trust those bats.”
Felicia Rios found her swing at the right time. With Costa Mesa creeping back, cutting Estancia’s lead to 8-5 in the second inning, Rios blew the game open two innings later.
The junior belted a two-run home run to right-center field, putting the Eagles up, 13-5, in the fourth. The homer marked Rios’ first over a fence this season.
An inning later, Rios topped that at-bat. She blasted a three-run home run to straightaway center, giving the Eagles an 18-5 lead in the fifth, more than enough for them to finish Costa Mesa (8-14) off in five innings, not the regular seven.
By the time Brittany Walker returned to pitch in the bottom half of the fifth against Costa Mesa, Nefertiti Van Den Heever had given Walker a 15-run lead to work with. Van Den Heever, who went four for five, smacked a two-run double off the left-field fence.
Walker appreciated the run support, which saw Isabelle Morales and Karina Camarena each double in two runs, and Kalena Shephard double in one run.
“I was kind of happy that we could come out again because I was kind of nervous yesterday about pitching in the rain,” Walker said.
The freshman didn’t have to throw under wet conditions on Thursday because the umpire called the game in the top of the first, or on Friday because the sun appeared. The weather helped Walker prevail against the Mustangs again.
Walker (6-4) has earned wins against Costa Mesa in a tournament game, in a league game, and now in a league playoff game. Walker, who allowed three hits and two earned runs in five innings, retired the side in order in the final three innings.
Her defense backed her up. Maya Van Den Heever made a couple of nice plays at third base, snagging a line drive and throwing out a runner on her knees. Keep in mind that she’s not used to playing third.
“I was supposed to play center,” said Van Den Heever, who went four for five, “but our third baseman, Gianna [Guyot], left to play in Phoenix with her soccer club. I was really nervous playing third.”
Van Den Heever held up, as did Costa Mesa’s field.
Costa Mesa Coach Heather Orduna said a dozen people worked on the field for 1 1/2 hours, all the way up to game time. She said they brushed water off the infield and dumped Quick Dry on it, making the diamond playable.
“[The game] was officially canceled with the rain, and about 15 minutes after making that call, my athletic director [Sharon Uhl] and I came out here [around 12:30 p.m.] and it had stopped raining,” said Orduna, who led Costa Mesa to a 5-5 mark in league and its first third-place finish in four years. “We saw the field and pretty much we were determined to get it ready for game play, because we did not want to do a coin flip … to determine [who earned the league’s final playoff berth].
“Regardless of the outcome of this game, [playing the game] was still the right call. As a coach, I’m more proud of this loss than I would’ve been winning the coin flip.”
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Orange Coast League playoff game
Estancia 20, Costa Mesa 5
SCORE BY INNINGS
Estancia 710 066 – 20 22 2
Mesa 320 000 – 5 3 3
Walker and Shephard; A. Morales and Farldow. W – Walker. L – A. Morales. 2B – I. Morales (E), Camarena (E), Shephard (E), N. Van Den Heever (E). HR – Rios (E) 2.