The crowd is all cheers and jeers. Antelope Valley’s fans are mad over a call that gave the El Camino softball team a 3-2 lead, but AVCs Dolly Stevens came up to bat with one out in the bottom of the sixth in Saturday’s elimination match.
“Come on Dolly, it’s an easy pitch,” a Marauders fan cheered.
Bang.
Deep center, El Camino sophomore center fielder Rae Camez is tracking it down.
Even deeper and she’s up against the fence, and all of a sudden Stevens’ solo-shot is gone, game tied 3-all in the bottom of the sixth and it just got worse from there.
One walk, a hit, followed by another walk and then two more hits and the Warriors (37-8) were down 5-3 at the end of six and eventually, the Marauders (37-6) would take down El Camino, 5-4.
“We had good at-bats, but the ball didn’t really fall for us tonight,” EC coach Jessica Rapoza said. “Sometimes that’s what happens in softball/baseball. There’s a lot of luck involved.”
The Warriors had eight hits, two errors and only four runs to their name, while the Marauders accumulated five runs on six hits and two errors and despite the strong will to make a comeback, EC fell short.
“I don’t want to base our season on one bad day,” Rapoza added. “That’s really what we had, ‘one bad day’ and it just happened that we played multiple games today.”
Antelope Valley lost 8-3 on Friday night, but exacted revenge against El Camino to advance to Sunday’s Southern California Super Regional title match against the Mt. San Antonio College Mounties at noon.
The Marauders starting sophomore pitcher, Morgan Arndt picked up a win, while pitching the entire game. She also pitched five innings in her earlier match-up against Cerritos College, which AVC won, 8-3..
“I can’t even tell you how I feel,” Arndt said. “My adrenaline’s pumping, I feel happy, really excited and nervous and pumped up (for tomorrow).”
Arndt pitched the full seven innings, facing 30 batters and giving up just four runs off eight hits and will look to prepare for Sunday.
“Personally, I know tonight I have to stretch and take an ice bath so I’m not sore for tomorrow,” Arndt added. “As a team I think we need to focus, get a good night rest and come out ready to play tomorrow, whether it’s one game or two games.”
The Warriors’ season comes to an end, and with all the talent the team had, it fell short of the State Championship.
An outstanding season for El Camino has done more than just continue Rapoza’s short, but acclaimed history as head coach.
She’s coached the Warriors to two conference titles in three years as a coach and looking forward, she thinks that what the 2017 season did was really create a culture that makes the team someone to contend with.
Going forward, freshman catcher Ashley Machado isn’t fazed thinking about next season.
“We had a great season, just kind of came up short. It happens,” Machado said. “I think it’s going to start with having more confidence and having more energy and being a team leader on and off the field.”
