Night to forget, but a season to remember

It was tough for the Pacheco High School softball players to see it in the moment.

The sting of a season-ending 10-5 loss to Lincoln in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs was still too fresh Tuesday night.

Throw in the fact the Panthers didn’t represent themselves well with an eight-error evening at the Sacramento Softball Complex, and it was understandably difficult for them to take stock of an historic season.

“I think when we look back and realize that we were the team to bring in the school’s first-ever conference title, it’s something we’re always going to be proud of,” senior pitcher Gia Rodoni said. “That’s a pretty special thing that we’re going to remember forever. It’s just tough to feel real good about it right now.”

That’s because after a 1-0, nine-inning victory over Ceres on the final day of the regular season to grab a share of the Western Athletic Conference crown, Pacheco had ambitions for a playoff run.

The irony is some of those ambitions may have proven Pacheco’s downfall, as it clearly was not entirely focused on the task at hand Tuesday night. The Panthers were shaky defensively all evening but got away with it for a few innings. The lack of sharpness finally caught up with them in the bottom of the fifth as Lincoln used four errors to hit through the order and score five runs.

“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,” 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 homer.

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 13, 2015 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Night to forget, but a season to remember."