Amador Valley’s softball program hosted its eighth annual ‘Play for the Cure’ on Thursday afternoon, hosting Livermore in a battle for the top spot in the EBAL-Valley standings.
The Dons had 22 different women take part in the pre-game event, all of them either breast cancer survivors or women currently going through treatment. More amazing is the fact that all 22 are connected to current Amador Valley team members.
“This event has really grown over the last eight years,” said Amador Valley coach Teresa Borchard. “People are getting more comfortable being involved.”
Seven years ago, the Dons had three women in the inaugural event on campus. This year, 15 different women threw out the first pitch before the game. Those numbers send a message to both the participants in the event and the teams playing the game.
“The recognition and the awareness that we are bringing to this fight, it helps to give strength to those currently going through it,” Borchard said. “It also helps our players to understand being part of something bigger than themselves. Some of our past participants are no longer with us anymore either, and that adds additional perspective.”
Amador Valley buys t-shirts for both teams, coaches, and the umpires for the game, so it does cost the Dons money to put on the event. Since softball teams are prohibited from charging admission to regular-season games, they have no gate proceeds to donate, but do take donations, sell breast cancer merchandise, hold a bake sale, and raffle off gift baskets, all of which go to support for breast cancer research. They also had an awareness table with literature and survivor stories.
“The day is about bringing awareness,” Borchard said. “At the same time, it is an emotional day, so it also presents a challenge to the teams, to get refocused after the pre-game ceremony.”
When the teams did take the field, it was Livermore catcher Missy Nunes and the Cowboys who seem to regain their focus first. For the second time in two seasons, Nunes homered off Amador Valley ace Danielle Williams, giving Livermore a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first inning. Unlike that game last year, and also unlike the Cowboys’ win over the Dons earlier this season, the Dons shook off the deficit with a strong offensive performance.
Williams settled down, and struck out 13 batters without allowing another run. The junior also supported her own cause at the plate, with two hits and three RBI, including a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth that finished the scoring in a 6-2 win for the Dons.
Amador Valley cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first, when Williams singled to score Val Torres-Colon with two outs. Torres-Colon then delivered in the bottom of the second inning with a two-out triple, scoring both Chloe Engel and Kaitlyn Jones for a 3-2 lead. Jessica Emde added to the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out single to left, bringing in Engel for a two-run lead.
With the win, Amador Valley now holds a one-game lead over both Foothill and Livermore in the Valley Division. The top two teams in the division will advance to a four-team playoff for the league championship against the top two teams from the Mountain Division.
EBAL playoff considerations
With the new format in the East Bay Athletic League, the 10 teams are broken into two five-team divisions. With the top two teams in each division advancing to a four-team playoff for the league title, watching the standings is now a regular occurrence.
Carondelet and San Ramon Valley have a decent grasp on those two spots in the Mountain Division, though California is lurking. The Valley Division is far from settled, however. Amador Valley has a one-game lead over Foothill and Livermore, who are battling for the final spot.
Livermore beat Foothill in the first meeting between the teams, but the Cowboys have lost two of their last three games to fall into a tie with the Falcons. Foothill still has to play Amador Valley again, while Livermore and Foothill still have one head-to-head meeting remaining. That game on May 4 could potentially decide the final playoff spot, because even if the two teams finish tied, the records during the second round of divisional play and the final head-to-head meeting stand as the two tiebreakers beneath head-to-head results.
Joining the 1,000 club
Fortuna senior Hailey Dolcini joined a rare group last Saturday, registering the 1,000th strikeout of her high school career. Playing in the Wolfpack Invitational in Redding, Dolcini struck out the first batter she faced in the fourth game of the two-day tournament, against Chico, to reach the milestone.
Her weekend was highlighted by a head-to-head win over Foothill-Palo Cedro’s Jessica Seely, who is headed to Sacramento State, and three shutout victories. Dolcini has allowed two earned runs this season, and has 193 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched.
The Huskies opened a three-game series with McKinleyville this week by taking down the Panthers, 13-0, on Thursday. They have a doubleheader this Saturday. Jenna Christensen has been one of the top power hitters in the section, with six home runs so far this year.
Cardiac Trojans gain control in WACC-Foothill
When junior Maddy Thompson raced home to score on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning, it marked the second time in as many games that Castro Valley had defeated league rival Bishop O’Dowd in its final at-bat. One day after scoring six runs in the final inning to beat the Dragons, 14-10, the Trojans scored four times in their final opportunity to win 7-6 and maintain sole possession of first place in the WACC-Foothill standings.
O’Dowd led 6-3 entering the bottom of the seventh in the second meeting, and pitcher Elizabeth Avery got the first out of the inning on a ground ball to second base. The next six batters reached base, however, including a walk and an error to tie the game prior to the wild pitch.
The previous night, senior Emily Shaw had hit a grand slam in the top of the seventh inning to give Castro Valley the lead, handing it over to Maggie DelGrande, who retired the side in order in the bottom half of the inning to preserve the win. That spoiled a big night for Frankie and Nicole Hammoude, who combined for seven RBI in the loss.
Castro Valley faces San Leandro on Friday. The Pirates handed the Trojans their only league loss so far back on April 4. The Trojans then face second-place Berkeley next week.
Strong as ever
Freedom is off to a 4-0 start in the Bay Valley Athletic League, a game ahead of rival Heritage, with what has now become an expected run of strong pitching from junior Vanessa Strong.
Strong has allowed just seven hits and no earned runs in the first four games of league play, extending an impressive run for the hurler. She allowed a run in Freedom’s 1-0 loss to Foothill in the semifinals of the Livermore Stampede, but that came during an extra-inning, international tiebreaker, and occurred largely due to a slip in front of a wet pitching mound.
Prior to that, she had allowed just one earned run in the previous three games, during a 7-1 win over Livermore.
