Defense lets Pacheco softball down in playoff loss to Lincoln

Maybe it was nerves.

Maybe it was a little overconfidence coming off a Western Athletic Conference title-winning victory over Ceres.

Whatever the reason, the Pacheco High School softball team didn’t take the Sacramento Softball Complex field with its usual focus Tuesday night, particularly on defense.

The Panthers got away with it for a few innings. But the lack of sharpness came back to bite them in the bottom of the fifth as Lincoln used four errors to hit through the order on the way to a 10-5 victory in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs.

“I’m not really sure what it was, but we didn’t come as ready to play a team like that as we needed to,” Pacheco pitcher Gia Rodoni said. “I feel like we didn’t take them as seriously as we needed to, and it cost us.”

Rodoni did her part, striking out 10 in five innings and limiting the Zebras to one earned run. Her lone blemish came in the first inning when Lincoln’s Sienna Stone hit a 3-1 pitch for a solo home run.

Pacheco coach Charlie Pikas said he thought it was a big confidence boost for the Zebras (19-9).

“You have to give Lincoln credit,” Pikas said. “Everything you read about them coming into this game was how they were in a slump. Their coach even said it in their local paper.

“(Stone) took advantage of a hitter’s count and made some good contact. I think they felt like they could hit against Gia after that.”

If the Zebras weren’t feeling confident after the home run, they certainly were after Pacheco (13-15) handed them eight extra outs. And it wasn’t just the errors. Lincoln beat out four infield singles on routine plays and had a number of playable balls get through the infield for hits.

Down 2-0 in the fourth inning, Rodoni sidestepped two errors, recording back-to-back strikeouts to strand runners on second and third. But she wasn’t so fortunate in the fifth.

A one-out throwing error on a ground ball to third started the rally. Pacheco committed three more errors in the inning, and the Zebras produced five hits to score five runs and take a 7-0 lead.

The Panthers had only one hit off Lincoln’s Alexis Sheiring through five innings, but they answered in the sixth. Jennifer Eagleton got Pacheco on the scoreboard with a bases-loaded, two-run single. A steal of home and two wild pitches resulted in three more runs as Pacheco trimmed the lead to 7-5 with the tying runs in scoring position.

But the runners were stranded, and Lincoln put away the game with three runs in the bottom half.

“When we got back in after the fifth inning, we challenged the girls to show some heart,” Pikas said. “We asked them to put up a fight, and that’s what they did.

“It’s hard to win a game when you commit eight errors and only allow one earned run. We scored five earned runs. If we’re just a little cleaner, we’re still playing.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Defense lets Pacheco softball down in playoff loss to Lincoln."