SAN JOSE — It could’ve happened at any moment.
It could’ve happened in the second, sixth or ninth inning when Pioneer High had the potential game-winning run on third base.
It could’ve happened when senior outfielder Nicole Wilson was sliding into third at the top of the 10th inning.
It could’ve happened when a pitch uncharacteristically squirted out of the glove of sophomore catcher Juliana Wilson.
But it didn’t.
Watsonville High never cracked. The Wildcatz’s focus never wavered. They never made the backbreaking mental error. They might have stumbled here or there but they never lost their footing. The moment was never too big for them and the pressure never got to them, either.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they didn’t feel it.
“It was a rush of adrenaline,” Nicole Wilson said. “I’m still shaking right now.”
What’s a win without a little bit of a challenge anyway, right?
No. 4 Watsonville kept its cool in the hottest of moments and slayed the giant on Thursday night at PAL Stadium in San Jose, stunning superstar pitcher Holly Azevedo and the top-seeded Mustangs, 1-0, in 10 innings to advance to the Central Coast Section Division I championship game.
The Wildcatz (23-4) will play No. 7 Homestead High, which beat Monta Vista High, back at PAL Stadium on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
It will be Watsonville’s first CCS Championship game since the 2006 season and the program’s third overall. The Black and Gold has never won a section championship in softball, losing to San Benito High and North Salinas High via 1-0 heartbreakers in ’06 and ’00, respectively.
Watsonville head coach Scott Wilson said he knew very little about Homestead but added that he would get right to work on Saturday’s plan of attack. The coach explained that he and his team had plenty to worry about heading into Thursday’s matchup against arguably the top pitcher in all of Northern California.
Azevedo, who will play for NCAA Division I powerhouse UCLA next season, fanned 23 batters and looked all-but unhittable through the first nine innings. But with the international tiebreaker — a rule that puts a runner on second base at the start of each inning after the ninth — in effect, Watsonville finally found the hit, and bounce, it needed.
Senior shortstop Savanah Quintana slapped a short and low hit that ran out of gas a few inches short of landing in Azevedo’s glove. Sophomore shortstop Sydney Solis gathered the ball off the ground and zipped it toward third base but her throw was off target, allowing Wilson to slide into third safely, stand back up and race home for the deciding run.
“I saw coach Scott saying, ‘go, go, go,’” Nicole Wilson said. “I said, ‘put your head down and run. You’re going to slide and get in.’”
She did. But the fun had just started.
Pioneer (15-10) senior Lauren Garcia started at second base in the bottom of the 10th and moved over to third on senior Brook Niewoehner’s sacrifice bunt.
Watsonville sophomore pitcher Jessica Rodriguez then missed her mark high against Pioneer junior Kelsey Fager and the ball slipped through Juliana Wilson’s mitt.
Garcia started running toward home plate on the wild pitch but stopped halfway and scurried back toward third base as Juliana Wilson corralled the loose ball. Wilson’s toss toward third hit off Garcia’s back and landed in foul territory in front of Pioneer’s dugout. Garcia, urged by her head coach Ed Barclay, turned around and sprinted toward home again but Quintana picked up the ricochet and threw home where Wilson tagged out Garcia to preserve the one-run lead.
Rodriguez then put the finishing touches on the win by striking out Fager to record the final out.
All of that happened in less than 10 minutes.
“It was nerve-racking,” said Juliana Wilson, who is verbally committed to the University of Central Florida. “As soon as I saw [Quintana] get the ball and throw it, I knew she was going to be out. I got tingles all through my body. It’s just a rush of, ‘we got this. This is our moment. We’re going to bring something back to Watsonville.’”
Watsonville surprisingly finished second in its inaugural season in the brutal Monterey Bay League Gabilan division behind 10-time CCS champ San Benito High. But the Wildcatz entered the postseason on a bit of shaky ground after losing three of their last five league games.
Thursday, however, was their fourth straight victory. A fifth straight win could put Watsonville in the record books as the first team from Santa Cruz County to win a section title in softball.
“I’m just so proud of us,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve been working so hard to get here.”
Rodriguez allowed only three hits on the night and struck out 10 batters. The CCS leader in strikeouts (238) this season did not try to do it all on her own.
Rodriguez, who is verbally committed to UNLV, pitched to contact with a runner on third base in the second, sixth and ninth inning — Azevedo tripled in the second, while Lizzy Smith tripled in the sixth and doubled in the ninth. Her defense came through each time, keeping Pioneer off the scoreboard on each occasion.
“I think [Rodriguez’s] performance was one of her best this season because of her defense,” coach Wilson said. “They needed to make plays. There’s no such thing as a routine play in these moments. The nerves. The anxiety. I told her to put the ball in play and make them make the plays. It was tough. We knew it was going to be.”
But the Wildcatz rose to the occasion against the Mustangs, who were trying to advance to their fourth straight CCS championship game — they’ve played for the Division II title each of the last three years but finished runner-up thrice.
Barclay said he was still incredibly proud of his team’s season despite the heartbreaking loss.
“I told them to hold their heads high because they played one hell of a ball game,” Barclay said. “It just doesn’t get any better than that. It comes down to a mistake. They got the break and we didn’t.”
And Watsonville, which had not won a CCS playoff game since 2007 before this season, impressively kept its composure when playoff-tested Pioneer didn’t.
“It was going to come down to who took advantage of an opportunity,” coach Wilson said. “We had a small window of opportunity and we made the most of it. They were almost in the same situation.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to show that Pioneer shortstop Sydney Solis made the throw to third base in the 10th inning. An earlier version of this article stated that Pioneer senior pitcher Holly Azevedo made the throw.
