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Sports

SOFTBALL: Late Inning Heroics Cost Monta Vista

Lancers score five runs in final two innings to defeat host Matadors.

The Score: St. Francis 7, Monta Vista 4

The Star: St. Francis Junior Alli Quinn looked unfazed against the El Camino league champs (Monta Vista) as she pitched a complete game allowing four runs on five hits to help the St. Francis High-Mountain View softball team defeat Monta Vista 7-4 in a 2011 Central Coast Section Division I first round playoff game Wednesday afternoon at Monta Vista High.

Quinn fanned 10 Matadors in the win, pushing the Lancers on to Saturday’s quarterfinal round in Salinas. St. Francis will square off against No. 3 seed Gilroy High at 10:30 am at the Salinas Sports Complex in one of four quarterfinals on the day.

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St. Francis Junior Amber Zamlich provided run support for the Lancers as she went 2-for-4 on the day, highlighted by a clutch two-run single in the top of the sixth to give the Lancers a 4-3 lead.

The Turning Point: Monta Vista (19-3, 11-1 ECL) controlled the game in the early going, holding a 3-2 lead against St. Francis (14-11-1, 6-6 WCAL), but things began to change in a hurry during the late innings. The Lancers sparked life in their offense in the top of the sixth off Monta Vista with back-to-back singles. With the bases loaded Zamlich stepped up to the plate and hit a key two-run single to right field giving the Lancers the 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.

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The Matadors looked to regain the lead and salvage their season in the bottom of the frame with runners on second and third and two away, but a clutch Quinn swinging strikeout cooled the threat and left two runners stranded.

With their season winding down and an impressive 11-game winning streak on the line, the Matadors gave up three more runs in the top of the seventh. Monta Vista connected on back-to-back singles to start the comeback with a run ,but eventually ran out of outs as the game ended with a St. Francis 7-4 triumph.

The Quotes: “We haven’t won in CCS in ten years—this is kind of all new to us,” St. Francis Head Coach Samantha Aochi said about the upset against Monta Vista.

“It felt pretty good—and we’ll all be pretty excited come Saturday (against Gilroy),” said Lancers Quinn on her strong pitching performance and outlook onto the next game.

“It was a tough match-up and their pitcher had a lot of velocity, something we hadn’t seen all season,” said Monta Vista Head Coach Raymond Teixera on his team’s surprise first round exit in CCS.

What’s Next? St. Francis moves on to the second round as they face another tough opponent, Gilroy High.

Monta Vista on the other hand, will look forward to next season as they will move up a division and have most of their squad intact, minus the loss of four seniors from the 2011 roster.

The Bottom Line: St. Francis will need another start showing in the circle on Saturday. Gilroy, a perennial Division I title contender and finalist, has a seasoned team that has made several deep playoff runs over the past few seasons.

.................................................................................................... 

St Francis     0 0 2 0 0 2 3      7  11  3

 Monta Vista  1 0 2 0 0 0 1     4   5    3

 WP: Quinn   LP: Onishi

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