Ceres softball was a tough out in Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs

For the Ceres softball team, the cold reality of Monday’s 5-4 loss to Vanden was that it was a season killer.

There are no more practices, road trips to the Sacramento Softball Complex, team dinners or games for these tough-to-break Bulldogs.

But when the dust settles on the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III tournament, pitcher Ray Sagapolu, catcher Mahlena O’Neal and their Ceres teammates may discover there wasn’t much separating them and the champion.

The Bulldogs reached the quarterfinal round with a pair of shutout victories over lower-seeded teams, No. 13 River Valley and No. 12 Cordova, and then fell into the loser’s bracket with an extra-inning 2-1 loss to top-seeded Pioneer.

On Monday, Ceres very nearly extended its season one more day in another one-run loss. Sagapolu launched a three-run home run in the fifth inning to pull the Bulldogs within one, 5-4, and then had the tying run at second base in the seventh.

There just wasn’t any magic left in the bats.

Vanden escaped and will play the winner of No. 3 Ponderosa-Cordova on Tuesday afternoon.

Ariel Knights had three of Ceres’ six total hits. The home run was Sagapulo’s fourth of the season. The Western Athletic Conference co-champions close the season at 22-9.

River City 19, Pitman 4, in Sacramento: Playing without six seniors, the fifth-seeded Pride were eliminated from the Division I tournament.

Senior starter Alexis Mettler helped keep Pitman (22-8) close, but back spasms forced her out of the game with the Pride trailing No. 7 River City 3-1.

The six seniors missed Monday’s game to travel with graduating classmates to Disneyland.

This story was originally published May 18, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Ceres softball was a tough out in Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs."