Seasoned Bears lock up playoff spot with road win

John Kane couldn’t help but marvel at how far his squad had come in the last couple months.

It wasn’t long ago that his young Merced softball team might have been caught up in the enormity of what was at stake in a road trip to Turlock on Tuesday afternoon. A win locked up the Bears’ place in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs for an eighth straight season and give them the inside track to second place in the Central California Conference. A loss would have thrown the playoff picture wide open and heaped a lot of pressure onto Merced going into its final regular-season game.

It’s the kind of circumstances that butterflies exist for, but the Bears were so calm and collected before the game started, their coaching staff was worried the group had no energy. Kane and company need not have been concerned as the Bears outperformed the Bulldogs in all three phases of the game to pull out a 3-1 road victory.

“Having a young team and knowing the importance of the game, you never know how they’re going to react,” Kane said. “The way we started off playing in league and then bouncing back and gaining confidence as the season progressed. We started getting psyched up, but not psyched out.

“She’s a tough pitcher, but we stood in there and had some tough at-bats. Those two little bloop singles that drove in the runs aren’t real sexy, but if we don’t get runners on, they don’t mean a thing. Getting runners on and putting pressure on them was a big deal.”

Merced (11-12-2, 7-4 CCC) didn’t create a lot of hard contact against Turlock ace Shelby Frutoz, but took full advantage of some infield singles and a couple well-placed bloops.

Ashlynn Chatham got one such rally going in the top of the third by legging out a bunt single. Jewels Perez (2 for 4) slapped a single to left to put two on with one out and the pair each moved up a base on a double steal. Jackie Garza broke the deadlock with a two-out, two-run single, going with an outside pitch and blooping over the first baseman to make it 2-0 Bears.

“We all knew that it was going to be a tough game and that we had to put all of our effort into it and make smart choices together,” Garza said. “Every person that got on base counted. The coaches told us to take it where it was pitched and be more selective. We needed to not change our swings and find the pitch that you know you could hit.”

Merced’s opposite-field approach paid dividends again in the fourth inning as Kat Arceo inside outed a flair to shallow left field for a run-scoring single to make it 3-0.

That was more than enough support for Merced pitcher Abby Flores.

The sophomore right-hander allowed just six total base runners in the game – two via error – struck out eight and took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. Flores’ only blemish on the afternoon came on a pinch-hit home run by Jayden Mendoza in the bottom of the fifth. She bounced back nicely, however, and only allowed an infield single the rest of the way.

“I knew it was going to be a pitching duel and that I had to be on my game today, so I had to stay focused,” Flores said. “I just tried to let the ball go into the infield and outfield and let them make plays for me. We knew we had it, we just had to stay focused and believe we could do it.”

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 9:44 PM with the headline "Seasoned Bears lock up playoff spot with road win."