(Marana, AZ) The first round contest after the Play-In Games featured a great matchup right off the rip. The battle of the Cats.
The Girls from Vail the #10 Cienega Bobcats (15-11) traveled north to Marana to meet up with the hometown #7 Mountain View Mountain Lions (19-5).
Both teams traditionally are very strong. Would it be a pitchers duel or an offensive showcase?
Bobcat Coach Kelsey Harshman in her first year against veteran Coach Ramon De La Ossa and the rights to advance to Round 2.
The game started off slow as each squad got one runner on base in the opening inning but failed to score.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Lions saw Deborah Wallace reach base on an infield single. After a pop-up, Addie Noriega stroked a double to right center field as Wallace was held up at third. That put two runners on and one out, but two ground balls to the right side of the Cienega infield kept the game scoreless.
Mountain View pitcher Arianna Figueroa ran into a little trouble in the top of the third as she walked Aubrey Marx and Skylar Hardin but two infield pop-ups and a ground ball got her out of the inning.
The Lions started to figure out Bobcat pitcher Maya Fimbres in their half of the third inning. Even with Talia Martin’s deep fly ball out to right field to start their at bats, you could see that they had their timing down.
Next, Anyssa Borjorquez singled to center field and Clarissa Figueroa followed with a bloop single to center. Borjorquez had to hold up to see if the ball would drop in advanced to second.
The Bobcats changed pitchers to Kylie Bristol as she inherited runners now at first and second with one out. She got Sophia Martinez looking at a third strike for the second out.
Cienega needed just one more out to get out of the jam. Up came Deborah Wallace who smacked a hard line drive off the third baseman’s glove and into shallow left field scoring Borjorquez for the game’s first run. At the end of three innings, Mountain View had a 1-0 lead.
Cienega got the lead off batter on in the top of the fourth inning on another blooper to left field, but Figueroa quickly turned around and got two pop-ups and strike out to end the Bobcat’s hopes.
Throughout the game Figueroa consistently got ahead of the hitters and put the pressure on the Bobcats to figure out her array of pitches.
Coach De La Ossa fired his team up to get their offense in gear in the bottom of the fourth.
Addie Noriega led off with a walk. She advanced to second base on a passed ball and scored on a ground ball single up the middle and an RBI from Aaliyah Pereda to extend the lead 2-0. Smart base running allowed Pereda to take second base on the throw home. Next up was Mady Stutzman who did her job by advancing Pereda to third on a sacrifice ground ball to the right side of the infield.
Bobcat Coach Harshman wanted no part of Martin as she was intentionally walked to put runners at the corners and set up the double play. Martin promptly stole second and Borjorquez walked to load the bases with only one out.
Cienega was in a world of trouble now and couldn’t afford to get behind further with their offense not performing.
Clarissa Figueroa lifted a high fly ball to center, third base Coach Rene Figueroa gave Pereda the green light to tag up. The throw was on the money, but the ball was jarred lose and the run scored to extend the lead to 3-0 for Mountain View.
Heading into the latter innings and Figueroa in command, would Cienega’s offense come alive? The Bobcats woke up with the lead off batter Sophie Butt who crushed Figueroa pitch to the right field fence on a bounce. A pop-up to the shortstop prevented Butt from advancing, but she scored on Hardin’s sacrifice fly to right to cut the deficit to one run 3-2 heading to the final two innings.
Figueroa now knowing that each batter she faced represented the tying run, buckled down and retired the next five batters.
Cienega reignited the excitement of this playoff game. Down to their last out in the top of the seventh, Marx belted a sure double to right field, but that’s when the fire was extinguished as she made the made the cardinal sin of trying to stretch it into a triple. She was thrown out by an excellent relay from Clarissa Figueroa to third baseman Borjorquez. Softball dictates, “never make the first or third out at third base.”
The biggest takeaways from the contest was the stellar pitching by Arianna Figueroa and her consistently keeping the Cienega batter off balance and the strong defense by the Mountain Lions when their potent offense wasn’t there today.
To make a deep run in the playoffs, you have to be a two faceted team. When the offense isn’t clicking, you need the shut down pitching and defense and that was on display for Mountain View today as they came away with a hard fought victory 3-2.
Up next, the Lions travel north to Scottsdale and a date with the Desert Mountain Wolves on their home field May 2nd at 4 p.m.
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