Pitching depth propels CCC past WAC all-stars

The Central California Conference was dominated by pitching this season. The depth and talent of the CCC pitching was on display on Tuesday night, as a quintet of hurlers combined to stifle the top hitters the Western Athletic Conference has to offer.

Atwater High coach Robert Santistevan had the luxury of running out El Capitan’s Cassie Gasper, Merced’s Abby Flores, Buhach Colony’s Selena Sandoval, Golden Valley’s Marissa Bertuccio and his own ace Cheyenne Mahy to the circle as the CCC defeated the WAC 4-3 in the third annual Paul Leonardo WAC vs CCC All-Star Softball Game at Livingston High.

“It’s very relaxing,” Santistevan said. “Just let them play their game.”

Even with Turlock’s Shelby Frutoz, who was named the CCC Pitcher of the Year, unable to play because of an injury the CCC was still able to rely on five strong pitchers to cover the nine-inning game.

The WAC had to relay heavily on Ceres ace Callie Nunes. The Bulldogs right-hander started the game and threw two scoreless innings. Nunes then came back in to start the eighth and ended the game with two scoreless innings. Pacheco’s Autumn Randles and Los Banos’ Aly Waltman were the only two other WAC pitchers to see action in the game.

In between, the CCC managed to score four runs.

“We had to score on passed ball and count on good base running to score runs,” Santistevan said. “We had to put the ball in play.”

Two of the CCC’s four runs came on wild pitches to the backstop with runners on third base.

Atwater’s Eileen Martinez scored the first run of the game in the third inning. The Falcons senior reached on a bunt single and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Randles. Martinez later moved up to third on a fielders choice and then scored on a wild pitch.

Gasper and Flores combined to pitch four scoreless innings for the CCC to start the game. Gasper wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning by striking out Los Banos’ Emily Lonetree for the final out.

Flores also stranded four runners on base her two innings.

The WAC finally broke through against Sandoval Waltman singled in Nunes to tie the game at 1-1 in the fifth inning. Pacheco’s Sam Jacquez followed with an RBI double to give the WAC a 2-1 lead.

The CCC answered right back in the sixth inning as Buhach Colony’s Tatianna Anderson hit a two-run single up the middle with two outs to give her team a 3-2 lead.

“All I was thinking about was just getting a hit,” said Anderson, who finished with two hits. “I wasn’t thinking about the count. I knew I had to get a base hit to score at least one run.”

The WAC came back to tie the game in the sixth against Bertuccio as Los Banos’ Savannah Valenzuela drove in Patterson’s Riley Kuderca with the tying run on a ground ball to shortstop.

The CCC took the lead for good in the seventh inning against Waltman as Flores led off the frame with a single. Merced teammate Jewels Perez pinch ran for Flores after she advanced to second on a bunt. Perez advanced to third on a wild pitch and came around to score on a second wild pitch to give the CCC a 4-3 lead.

Bertuccio and Mahy, who combined to strike out 371 batters in just over 262 innings this season, closed out the win. Bertuccio picked up the win and Mahy threw two scoreless innings to pick up the save.

“I wasn’t surprised by the game, this is the type of game I expected,” Bertuccio said. “I knew the struggles would be at the plate with all these tough pitchers.”

“This was so much fun,” Mahy said. “It was so much fun playing against all these girls during the season and today we got to play together. It was the highlight of my year. I know all the pitchers on all the teams. I’m so proud of them.”

This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Pitching depth propels CCC past WAC all-stars."