NOVATO, CA – For the past two seasons the softball power in the Redwood Empire portion of the CIF North Coast Section has resided in Novato at San Marin, but for the time being that changed and in a big way on Wednesday night when Marin Catholic-Kentfield (15-1, 9-0) broke a two-plus year drought against their Marin County Athletic League rivals after the Prep2Prep NCS No. 6 ranked Wildcats dominated the NCS No. 12 Mustangs in a 5-1 road victory.
Not only had San Marin won six straight games against Marin Catholic over the last two-plus seasons, but in her first two seasons as a Mustang Utah-committed San Marin junior pitcher Madison Papenhausen had only given up a single earned against Marin Catholic in her five previous appearances against the Wildcats.
“I’m speechless,” said Utah-bound Marin Catholic slugger Julia Scardina. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this and we were due. I know it’s only a league game but this gives us a lot of confidence. I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates. Every single girl played their best.”
The beginning of the end of the streak came in the top of the second inning. After Papenhausen retired the first four batters up stepped Marin Catholic sophomore pitcher and slugger Annabel Teperson to the batter’s box. Papenhausen came in with a hard fastball and Teperson launched a high aching drive that cleared the 200-foot fence in the left centerfield power alley with plenty to spare and gave Marin Catholic a 1-0 lead it would never relinquish.
“I was not expecting a home run,” said Teperson, who hit her fourth home run of the season. “But it was right down the middle and it was my pitch, and the speed of it accelerated off my bat.”
The third inning produced two more runs for Marin Catholic. Leadoff batter Emily Press doubled, Kiera DeLacy walked, and Papenhausen then uncorked a wild pitch that advanced runners to second and third. Scardina then got a ball to the right side for a sacrifice groundout that plated Press and moved DeLacy to third. Teperson then reached on a fielder’s choice that drove in DeLacy for a 3-1 lead.
San Marin (12-3, 8-1) got an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth when leadoff hitter Lucy Morgan singled and scored on an errant throw that was the only defensive snafu for Marin Catholic. Trailing 3-1 the hosts eventually got the tying runners to second and third, but Teperson struck out the next two batters and third base girl Jordan McLaughlin snared a hot smash and threw out the runner to retire the side.
As things seem to happen sometime McLaughlin opened the top of the sixth with a single, Mia Pomponio bunted but a rare throwing error by San Marin Cal-committed junior catcher Alexis Bishop advanced runners to second and third. Up stepped Press and she singled both runners home to close out the scoring.
From there Teperson gave up a walk in the sixth but a 1-6-3 double play wiped that out and she retired the side in order in the seventh to begin the Wildcats celebration.
“It feels great,” remarked Teperson on finally beating San Marin. “Coming into this game we were really excited and we came out with energy and did what we were supposed to do.”
From the circle Teperson retired 12 of the first 13 batters and ended up giving up no earned runs, two hits, both in the fifth inning, plus she struck out five and had two walks. She was 1-2 at the plate with the home run, two RBI and the run scored.
“Annabel has been getting better each game and today she was outstanding in all aspects of the game,” Marin Catholic Coach Dave Albini remarked.
Press, a blossoming junior, was 2-for-4 with the double two RBI and a run scored. McLaughlin had two hits and scored twice, and Scardina had two hits and the one run batted in.
Papenhausen ended up giving up four earned runs on nine hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
For Albini the fact his girls were able to hit and score runs off Papenhausen was a good sign.
“We’ve been getting better with our hitting, and I was a little surprised we hit so well tonight, but hitting Papenhausen after so much lack of success against her is huge,” Albini remarked.
Some had questioned Marin Catholic being so high in the P2P NCS rankings with a schedule that only included one real tough opponent, and that was a 5-0 loss to P2P CCS No. 3 Presentation-San Jose. However, with the Wildcats showing against a proven San Marin team, coupled with Presentation knocking off CCS No. 1 St. Francis at the same time, Albini and his girls have proven worthy of top billing in the Redwood Empire portion of the NCS for now, but the season has a long way to go.
Marin Catholic and San Marin are both in action on Thursday with the Wildcats taking on Terra Linda and the Mustangs facing San Rafael where they will try to start another winning streak after the loss ended a run of 12 straight victories.
