It’s officially walk-off mania.
Not to be outdone by the two schools’ thrilling baseball series last week, the Bishop Diego and Carpinteria softball teams made it three straight games decided in the last at-bat between the rivals on Monday.
After the baseball teams each recorded walk-off wins on their own diamonds, the Cardinal softball team kept up with the pattern, pushing over a run with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning to take a 4-3 Frontier League victory.
[nggallery id=26]”They’re our rivals and they played really hard so we give them props for that,” said Cardinals third baseman Paige Sleep, who scored the winning run. “But we obviously worked hard too so we’re very glad for the win.”
Sleep went 2-4 with two runs scored and got on base to leadoff the seventh inning. Sleep advanced to second base on a wild pitch and reached third when the Warriors tried to tag her out on a Diana Sleep groundball to the left side. Failing to do so, the Cardinals had a Sleep at each corner before an intentional walk to Devon Stein loaded the bases.
Maria Salgado stepped to the plate with nobody out and the Warrior infield playing in. Salgado came through with the RBU, sending a bouncer to the left-side that was cleanly fielded by Carpinteria shortstop Sarah Carrillo. The throw to the catcher seemed to beat the runner’s foot on the plate by a fraction of a second but the umpire ruled Sleep safe and the Cardinals celebrated the league win.
“I probably should have slid,” Sleep admitted afterwards, thinking back on the play. “The first thing is getting home so I wanted to hit the bag hard.”
It was a close enough play that Carpinteria head coach Henry Gonzales did not think it mattered.
“I want to congratulate Bishop. They played a good ballgame,” Gonzales said. “They made the plays they needed to and they got the bases they needed to win the game.”
The win sinks the Warriors to 0-3 in league.
“We just have to get better at the way we do things and bounce back,” Gonzales said. “We still have a lot of ball to go. We’ll turn this thing around.”
Carpinteria has plenty going for it, including freshman pitcher Maldonado, who recorded nine strikeouts on Monday.
Cardinals counterpart Madison Ballard, also a freshman, picked up the victory that evened Bishop’s league record at 2-2.
The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead on a Diana Sleep 2-run single in the first inning, only to have the Warriors draw even with a 3-run fourth inning.
Carpinteria scored all three of its runs with two outs, starting with a 2-run double from catcher Myriah Diaz that scored Emily Hernandez and starting pitcher Cat Maldonado. Carmen Campi’s grounder was then misplayed, allowing Diaz to score, and the score was 3-3.
The Warriors threatened to their first lead in the seventh inning when they put their leadoff batter on, but Paige Sleep, Annette Gonzales and Devon Stein combined to turn a double play and erase the base runner. Carrillo cracked a two-out single and stole second to keep the pressure on by reaching scoring position. Ballard ended the threat, however, inducing a fly ball to left field.
The Cardinals (10-8) play back-to-back league games finishing with Nordhoff on Tuesday while the Warriors (8-7) can pick up their first league win on Thursday at Malibu. Both teams are taking on non-league opponents on Friday. Bishop Diego will travel to Cate and Carpinteria hosts San Marcos.
BISHOP DIEGO 4, CARPINTERIA 3
Carpinteria 000 300 0 – 3 9 5
Bishop Diego 201 000 1 – 4 7 3
C – Maldonado, and Diaz. BD – Ballard, and Swan. 2b – Diaz 3b – AGonzalez
