SAN JOSE — With two runners on base, their best hitter at the plate and the momentum swinging their way, it looked like the Watsonville High Wildcatz were on the verge of yet another miraculous postseason comeback. But just as soon as their hopes started to rise, St. Francis High junior pitcher Jordan Schuring knocked them back down to earth.
Or into the sky, rather.
With the game on the line, the Lancers’ starting hurler got the ‘Catz’s No. 3 and 4 hitters to pop up, and No. 2 St. Francis held on for a 4-2 win on Thursday night at PAL Stadium in San Jose to eliminate No. 3 Watsonville from the prestigious Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs.
A year after capturing the program’s first-ever section title, Watsonville’s (23-4) season is over in the semifinal round.
“This one hurts. They’re going to wear this one for a while,” said Watsonville head coach Scott Wilson. “We believe in pitching, defense and offense, and pretty much in that order. We got behind in the count a lot, and our defense made a couple of mistakes, not too many, but they were at timely moments in the game.”
And yet, Watsonville still had a chance to make it interesting. With one out in the seventh, senior shortstop Savanah Quintana singled, and junior pitcher Jessica Rodriguez reached on an error to set up junior catcher Juliana Wilson — coach Wilson’s daughter — with a solid opportunity to tie the game or take the lead.
St. Francis (22-6) head coach Mike Oakland thought of intentionally walking Watsonville’s slugger for the second time on the night, but ultimately put his trust in Schuring.
The decision paid off, as his pitcher popped up Wilson and freshman outfielder Anastacia Alba to advance the Lancers.
“We got her to pop up on a 2-0 pitch. I bet you nine times out of 10 she drills that thing over the fence,” Oakland said. “We got lucky there. I think we definitely dodged a bullet.”
St. Francis (22-6) will play No. 8 Archbishop Mitty on Saturday back at PAL Stadium in a rematch of last year’s final between West Catholic Athletic League powers. Mitty beat St. Francis, 9-5, last season to win the inaugural Open Division crown.
Although the ‘Catz had hoped to be playing on championship Saturday, they were still ultimately proud to be the final public school alive in the demanding Open Division, which featured six teams ranked in the top 100 in the state, according to MaxPreps.com — Watsonville was 35th and St. Francis was 44th.
Another feather in their cap: winning a share of the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division championship in the league’s final year — Watsonville will join the newly-formed Pacific Coast Athletic League next season.
“We went all out,” said Juliana Wilson, an NCAA Division I UCF-commit. “It’s still a great accomplishment to be in the Open Division. I think this is probably the greatest year we’ve had, so far.”
It was a rematch of a preseason game from mid-March. Watsonville beat St. Francis, 3-0, in that meeting, and wasted no time in grabbing an early lead on Thursday.
Wilson’s RBI triple put Watsonville up 1-0 in the first inning, but St. Francis answered right back in the second. Sophomore infielder Sophia Roth hit an RBI triple of her own, and managed to cross home plate on the same play thanks to a Watsonville error.
Both teams went silent until sophomore infielder Hailey Prahm’s RBI single made it 3-1, and another Watsonville mistake allowed St. Francis to take a three-run advantage in the fifth.
Freshman outfielder Maya Guerrero led off the sixth with a triple, and senior third baseman Zaira Pena drove her in with an RBI groundout, but that’s as close as Watsonville came.
“[Watsonville is] really good. We had to beat them and I think we did,” Oakland said. “I don’t think they gave it to us in any stretch of the imagination. I have a ton of respect for every one of those kids over there and their coach.”
Rodriguez, an NCAA Division I UNLV-commit, suffered only her third loss of the season in the circle, despite allowing just two earned runs and seven hits.
Schuring struck out eight, and scattered six hits in the win.
Watsonville committed four errors on the night. It was one of the few times this season the ‘Catz, who start four freshmen and a sophomore, showed their youth.
“Our girls are so intense that they try to carry the weight of the team on their shoulders, which kind of takes away from keeping it simple,” coach Wilson said. “When they make the adjustment, you see it. The sixth and seventh inning, they refocused and said, ‘OK, one hit at a time.’”
The ‘Catz will graduate only three players, but losing Quintana and Pena will leave two gigantic holes in their infield. They will, however, return 13 players, including seven freshmen.
Several underclassmen were sobbing after the loss, but Juliana Wilson said she tried to put the loss into perspective for her younger teammates. Her freshman season, the ‘Catz were bounced in the first round of the Division I playoffs, but they used the disappointment of that early exit as motivation for the following season. A year later, they beat Homestead High for the D-I crown, becoming the first softball program from Santa Cruz County to win a section title.
“They still have three years left and they have a chance to do some great things,” Wilson said.
Added coach Wilson: “We don’t allow one game to define us as a team. We are competitors, we respect the game and we’ll be back next year, hungry to get back here in this prestigious Open Division.”
Editor’s Note: This article will publish in the June 1 edition of the Pajaronian.
