Valencia High junior Shea O’Leary admits she didn’t know how to celebrate.
You’ll have to forgive her: She’d never thrown a perfect game before.
“I kind of did like a fist pump. I was like, ‘Oh, yeah!” she said.
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O’Leary struck out 11 and held Golden Valley without a baserunner in Valencia’s 4-0 home win on Thursday.
To end the game, the 6-foot-2 righty induced a groundout to first baseman Amarys Miller-Godsey, who took the ball to bag unassisted.
“I was trying not to think about anything,” O’Leary said. “I was trying to just focus on hitting my spots.”
An inkling about a perfect game first popped into O’Leary’s mind in the bottom of the fourth inning.
If her teammates were thinking about it, they knew better than to say anything.
“We’ve talked about it before,” O’Leary said. “If I’m throwing a shutout or something, (they know) not to say anything, not to jinx it.”
There was nothing to worry about, as it turns out, but the celebration.
“I was overly excited, and I didn’t know what to do,” said O’Leary, who’s thrown a complete-game shutout in each of Valencia’s first four Foothill League games.
Cassidy Cangemi pitched a gem of her own for Golden Valley (11-8 overall, 2-2 in Foothill League). The righty allowed three hits in a complete-game effort. Only one of Valencia’s runs was earned.
Cangemi struck out 10 batters and walked one.
Valencia’s Ally Shipman went 1-for-3 with an RBI for the Vikings (16-7, 4-0), who scored in the first, fourth and sixth innings.
Noel Dominguez and Miller-Godsey had Valencia’s other two hits.
The Vikings will play at Canyon on Tuesday. Golden Valley will be at home against Hart.
