SARATOGA, CA - Prospect landed the first big blow in its softball game with visiting Branham. But the Bruins dominated after that, recording a 9-5 BVAL-Santa Teresa victory.
Trailing 1-0, Prospect sophomore catcher Mattea Carveiro had fans on both sides of the diamond buzzing with her tremendous three-run home run over the fence in left field.
"I've moved my hands - I used to hold them farther back near my head," Carveiro said. "Now I have them in front. It makes me quicker to the ball."
Carveiro displayed that again in the seventh inning when she led off with an equally impressive blast to left field for a solo home run. It was her fourth homer of the season, with three of them clearing fences and one of them blasted to the opposite field.
"She's starting to make better contact," Prospect coach Jason Potmesil said. "I think she was pressing a little bit before. She was also going the other way a lot. Now she's pulling the ball more and I think it's helping."
Unfortunately for Prospect, by the time of Carveiro's second home run, it was trailing 9-5. Relief pitcher Danielle Carrillo set the Panthers down in order after that to end the game.
Branham's own slugger, Kaddy Pizano, got the Bruins off to a quick start with an RBI single in the first inning and a two-run single in Branham's five-run second inning.
"I wasn't thinking about anything," Pizano said of her clutch hits. "If I think too much about what I have to do or how many people are on base or how many outs there are, it makes me too anxious."
Prospect helped the Bruins take that 6-3 lead, committing three errors in the first two frames. It had four errors overall.
"We gave up six unearned runs in a game we lost 9-5," Potmesil said. "That was pretty much the difference."
Also pacing the Bruins (12-6, 5-2) were Malyna Sanchez and Marie Minter with two hits and two RBI apiece. Adding one hit and an RBI each were Jennifer Darknell and Megan Heckleman.
"The girls were swinging the bats pretty well," Branham coach David Volz said. "But we can hit better than that."
The victory keeps Branham one-half game behind Sobrato (9-7, 5-1) in the Santa Teresa standings. The Bruins and Bulldogs will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Sobrato in a key division game.
Besides Carveiro, Annie Whipple had three hits for Prospect (8-10, 2-5) and Keelin Spencer had two.
Both teams had 10 hits, but Branham committed half as many errors.
