After a rollercoaster ride throughout Saturday’s championship game, the West Ranch Wildcats softball team came up just short in its bid for a CIF Southern Section title.
Seven innings weren’t enough to decide a winner between West Ranch and the St. Bonaventure Seraphs in the Division 5 final held at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine. The game nearly went to a ninth inning, but the Seraphs snatched victory at the last second to earn an 8-7 walk-off victory.
The Seraphs’ Janessa Brown hit a sharp ground ball with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning that was slightly misplayed, allowing Hallie Barlow to score the winning run from third. West Ranch had been leading 6-0 at one point and held a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh before the Seraphs forced extra innings.
“It was a roller coaster all game,” said West Ranch head coach Mike Merrilees. “And there was no stop, because I knew they weren’t just going to kind of keep going down in order. Eventually, I knew they’d start chipping away.”
West Ranch freshman pitcher Gretchen Roen tossed every pitch for the Wildcats. She cruised through four one-run innings before allowing five in the bottom of the fifth, tying the game at 6-6.
Freshman Torrey Price tripled with one out in the top of the sixth inning before coming around to score to put West Ranch up by one. She had two hits on the day and was one of eight Wildcats to record a hit.
Roen had two RBIs while Price scored twice.
The loss ended the Wildcats’ nine-game winning streak dating back to the regular season, a streak that catapulted them to second place in the final Foothill League standings and saw them both dominate teams and sneak by them throughout the playoffs.
Merrilees credited his young team — there is only one senior, Isabella Swanson, leading a group with four freshmen and three sophomores starting on the field — for establishing a new era at West Ranch.
“I think we built a culture here. That’s for starters,” Merrilees said. “We built a culture … Only losing one person is definitely promising. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s definitely positive for West Ranch softball and building our culture.”
Roen’s catcher and a key contributor throughout the playoffs with 11 hits in five games, Swanson also secured second place in the league standings with a walk-off hit to beat Valencia in the Wildcats’ final regular-season game.
“Kind of a scripted senior year,” Merrilees said. “I mean, you know, walking it off for Valencia, and I think probably hitting close to about .600 or .700 throughout the playoffs in general, to kind of guide a freshman pitcher all year, is huge.”
The only thing Merrilees said he wishes could have gone differently was the outcome of Saturday’s game.
“I told them both before the game and I tell them after the game, ‘I’m proud when you step on the fields and I’m proud when you step off,’” Merrilees said. “We achieved so much this year. We weren’t picked to be here, weren’t even really picked to be in the playoff hunt. So, I’m proud of everybody here to do it on this type of stage, that type of game, and this type of atmosphere. So proud. You know, would have liked to script it a little bit differently, but proud. That’s the only word I can say.”
Swanson and the Wildcats aren’t done just yet. They’re taking part in the CIF Division III SoCal Regional, with their first game set for Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Chula Vista as they take on the Olympian Eagles. Olympian won the CIF San Diego Section Division 3 title and has won 13 games in a row.
Should West Ranch advance to the championship game — there are only three rounds — the Wildcats could face off against St. Bonaventure for the second time in a week.
