Big Valley overcomes layoff, Lowell to advance to Saturday’s NorCal final
The Big Valley Christian softball team was on a high after winning its first section title since 2016 in a 5-3 comeback victory against Stone Ridge Christian. Then the Lions had to take a break.
Not because of anything they did wrong, but Prospect High, their scheduled opponent in the first round of the Division V Northern California Regional Championships, came down with COVID and was unable to field a team. This meant the Lions had to wait more than a week and a half between games.
“That was actually my main concern because we build off games,” pitcher Ava Hernandez said. “After that Stone Ridge game, we were pumped, we were ready for the next game. But when it didn’t happen, our spirits went down a little. We were talking like, ‘Don’t let anything faze you, we still have to go harder.’
“Every day this week, we’ve been having practices, we’ve been working just as hard and we’re not gonna back down. We are a strong team and we want this one more than anyone.”
With 12 days between games, they stayed ready for Thursday’s Northern California Regional semifinals game against Lowell of San Francisco by taking the time to get back to the basics.
“We have just been doing fundamentals,” said coach Eric Layman. “We did a lot of work on squeezes this last week. So we’ll see where that goes.”
The Lions (21-6) didn’t show any signs of rust after their long stretch without a game, as they put together their third-best scoring output this season in a dominant 15-1 win over the Cardinals to advance to Saturday’s Northern California Regional Championship against Los Altos at 4 p.m.
“Our game plan today was just to put the pressure on the defense, force them to make plays and it worked,” Layman said. “We played really good today. This is our first game since the sections so Saturday we will keep the momentum hopefully.”
Big Valley did most of its damage in the second inning as the Lions batted around and scored nine runs on six hits, highlighted by a towering two-run home run by Trinity Beers. The junior has really come along in the postseason with seven hits, six RBIs, one double and one home run in four games.
After hitting a home run, most people enter a light jog before touching second base. They use their “home run trot” to celebrate what they just accomplished. Not Beers, whose first out of the park home run gave the Lions an 8-0 advantage.
“To be honest, I was still sprinting because I wasn’t sure if it was over (the fence),” said Beers, who has two other home runs this season, both inside the parkers. “I just wanted to make sure, but it felt pretty good. I knew right off the bat that that hit was going to be pretty deep.
“It was the perfect pitch. A little inside, everything was right. I felt it off the bat. The pop was perfect. And it just flew.”
They added four more runs in the bottom of the third as Cecily Fontana, Rachel Schmidt, Macie Stevens and Beers all drove in runs to extend their lead to 15.
Hernandez said she aims for 10 strikeouts a game but she didn’t get that Thursday. The game was over in five innings; there wasn’t enough time. She had nine strikeouts in five innings and, with the help of the defense, allowed just five hits.
“I felt strong today,” said the pitcher, who enters Saturday’s final averaging 12 strikeouts a game and is seventh in the state with 309 total. “I felt like I had command of my pitches. I’m just so proud of my team because when I’m struggling, they’ve got my back, when I’m on point, they’ve also got my back so I’m just so proud of my team because I couldn’t have done any of this without them.”
Hosting the first ever Northern California Regional Championship game on Saturday Layman doesn’t think there will be too many nerves. They’ve had nearly two weeks to prepare.
“We have tried to keep everyone as calm as possible, “ Layman said. “Try to have that camaraderie so that everybody stays loose.”
