Gregori softball remains perfect in MMC with improbable finish

Downey High School’s persistence was trumped only by Gregori’s late pressure on the basepaths, and it was enough to widen the Jaguars’ lead in the Modesto Metro Conference.

Aaliyah Swan provided the final thrill in Gregori’s 4-3 victory over the Knights on Tuesday afternoon.

The sophomore raced around the bases for the winning run as the Knights, overwhelmed by the moment, botched her sacrifice bunt.

Leadoff hitter Nichole Alexander singled and scored on the play, which was pushed along by Swan’s aggressive baserunning and Downey’s sudden mental collapse.

“Nicky and Aaliyah did a great job of baserunning,” Gregori coach Alannah Johns said. “They saw the defense make mistakes; they saw they were sleeping a little bit. They worked hard and scored the winning runs.”

Downey fans sat in stunned silence, while the Jaguars remained perfect in conference play with the most improbable of finishes.

The victory gave Gregori (9-6, 6-0) a two-game lead over the Knights (8-7, 4-2). More importantly, it set up what should be an emotionally charged regular-season finale between the teams May 10.

“Everyone in this place knows who won the game,” Downey third-year coach Tony Harper said. “We walk away with our heads held high because we had them beat. … We won’t lose to them again, that’s for sure.

“It (stinks) to end the game like that, but I told them, ‘You can walk out of here with your head held high because you know what we did.’ Everyone in those stands knows what we did.”

The Knights were poised to deliver the biggest win in Harper’s short coaching career.

Jenaya Vasquez-Aguirre sliced an RBI triple into the right-field corner to give Downey a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh. Delilah Salazar tallied the go-ahead run after working a walk.

Just five years removed from a winless season, the Knights were three outs from knocking off a rival and perennial Sac-Joaquin Section playoff team.

Perhaps the moment was too big.

Alexander started the bizarre scoring sequence with a one-out single to center. Swan was pulled out of the batter’s box to huddle with her coaches, who called for the sacrifice bunt.

“I was planning on getting a hit, but my coach pulled me to the side and told me to do one of those quick bunts,” Swan said. “I had to take one for the team. I was thinking about moving the runner over. I wasn’t thinking about … scoring.”

It seemed unlikely. For starters, Downey was positioned to make the play.

Harper said the Knights anticipated the bunt and even rehearsed it aloud in a timeout. The final bits of instruction, however, were lost in translation.

Downey fielded the bunt cleanly but the throw glanced off Swan as she sped up the baseline. Once she felt the contact with the ball, instincts kicked in.

Run.

“When you run hard, when you sprint, you have to give it all you got,” Swan said. “You never know what might happen. Something good might happen.”

The Knights, on the other hand, were slow to react and didn’t retrieve the ball until after Alexander scored the tying run and Swan passed second base.

With the catcher up the third-base line backing up a potential throw to third, home plate was left open. Swan again acted on instinct and never broke stride around third base.

Downey threw home, but to no one.

“We got to play clean, and when we take a timeout and we talk about it, we have to talk about the complete play,” Harper said. “We knew they were going to do that. The girls even said, ‘We knew they were going to do that. How can that happen?’

“Yes, we talked about if the ball is going down the left side, the catcher is going down to cover third, but make sure you tell the pitcher she’s covering home. That’s crucial, to finish the play.”

Ironically, Downey was the aggressor throughout this matchup of the MMC’s top teams.

Downey had a runner reach base all seven innings and squeezed Gregori starter Madison Marsh for six hits and six walks.

Still, the host Jaguars struck first.

Jasmine Temple (1 for 2, two runs) walked to start the second inning and moved into scoring position on Nicole Stewart’s sacrifice bunt. Two batters later, Marsh singled into right field, scoring Temple.

The Knights answered with two runs in the fourth. Ashley Bonham led off with an infield single, and Sierra Harper walked. Bonham scored on a sharp single by True-Isabella Lopez, and Harper raced home on a bunt by Haley Viscovich.

Gregori’s Hannah Hoffman tied the score in the sixth with an RBI double off the left-field fence, setting up a wild finish on the shortest of hits.

“Beautiful bunt,” Johns said.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Gregori softball remains perfect in MMC with improbable finish."