Holly Geranen pitched out of two sticky situations and stroked the game-winning hit to lead Leland to a wild, 8-7 extra-inning victory against Carlmont on Thursday night.
The Charger victory came in the Central Coast Section Division I semifinals at PAL Stadium. It advances Leland to the finals at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against San Benito at PAL. The Chargers were eliminated in the semis each of the past two years.
Geranen's one-out, bases-loaded single to right field off Rebecca Faulkner in the bottom of the eighth won the game for the No. 2-seeded Chargers over No. 3 seed Carlmont.
"I was just thinking that there was only one out and I wanted to get it out of the infield," Geranen said. "I was just happy because we worked our (rears) off for this game and I thought we deserved it."
Leland (26-2) scored six runs in the fifth inning to take a 7-2 lead. The Chargers were aided with two out and one run across in the fifth on a controversial play. A Charger was called out trying to steal second base, but Leland appealed the call and the home plate umpire overruled it and called the runner safe. Carlmont (25-4) had to return to the field and Leland scored five more times in the inning.
Veteran Carlmont coach Jim Liggett was not pleased. He had words with the umpires after the play and between innings.
Said Liggett: "I went to (the second base umpire) and I said did 'Did you see the play?' And he said 'Yeah.' And I said 'What was it?' And he said 'I called it out.' Then how can (he) change it if he saw it? And he said 'Apparently I didn't.' I mean, what kind of umpiring is that?"
The Chargers got run-scoring singles by Geranen and Alexis Morales in the inning and a home run by Lexi Belligan.
The game seemed so out of reach at that point that Liggett actually replaced Faulkner in the circle in the sixth for an inning before the Scots came roaring back to life in the seventh inning in what the Carlmont mentor agreed was one of the most amazing rallies of his coaching career.
Jacey Phipps, Taylor Yzaguirre and Gabrielle Pons opened the inning with singles to load the bases. Then Faulkner drew a walk to force in a run and make it 7-3. Christy Peterson singled to nudge Hillsdale to within 7-4. Then Kirra Loucks tripled to left field to tie the game with still nobody out.
Now poised to take the lead, Hillsdale's hopes were dashed by Geranen who retired the next three batters on two short fly balls and a groundout.
"I was just thinking about throwing strikes and hoping to get my offense back in the dugout," Geranen said. "I was just trying to get our turn and win the game."
Hillsdale also got a leadoff triple from Phipps in the eighth. But Geranen again came up big, spearing a smash from Yzaguirre to throw the Carlmont catcher out at first for one out and then fielding a squeeze bunt from Pons and throwing out the runner at the plate for the second out.
That set the stage for further Geranen heroics in the eighth.
"Our team just battled," Leland coach Joe Gron said. "We went up five (runs) and people probably thought it was over, but when you're playing teams like this it's never over until the last out. Holly really buckled down and the defense played great behind her."
Liggett was disappointed by five Scot errors afield, including a four-base error to open the bottom of the first.
"I was very happy with the way we bounced back, but I wasn't happy with the way we played defense," Liggett said. "But the character we showed was impressive."
Phipps had three hits for Carlmont and Yzaguirre, Faulkner and Loucks had two hits apiece. Geranen had three hits and two RBI for Leland and Belligan had two hits.
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John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat
