Atwater softball beats Golden Valley amid playoff push

The Atwater softball team is hoping to avoid a down-to-the-wire battle for third place and the final Central California Conference playoff spot.

The Falcons would much prefer finishing second and avoiding the stress.

A 5-2 win over Golden Valley on Wednesday afternoon took a step in that direction as Gracie Santistevan and Cheyenne Mahy each drove in key runs and combined to limit the Cougars to five hits.

“We want to make the playoffs really bad,” Mahy said. “We want the blue banner this year. Especially for our three seniors.”

After Golden Valley (10-9, 3-6 CCC) opened the scoring in the third inning on Jessica Baker’s RBI single, Atwater took advantage of defensive miscues by the Cougars to take a 3-1 lead.

With two outs and a runner on first, Brittany Massa extended the inning when she reached on an error. After a walk loaded the bases, Maritza Iglesias hit a pop up that dropped between two GV infielders for a two-run single. Two batters later, Erika Perez drew a walk with the bases loaded to extend the lead to 3-1.

“We’ve been doing that all year,” said Atwater coach Robert Santistevan, whose team improved to 11-9 and 5-4. “If someone makes a mistake we capitalize on it. That’s big for our girls to come through in that spot.”

The Cougars closed the gap to 3-2 in the sixth when Ruby Parris singled in Baker, but the Falcons answered again in the bottom of the inning.

Mahy doubled in Perez and Santistevan drove in Mahy with a single to give the Falcons a 5-2 lead.

It also gave breathing room to Mahy, who had relieved Santistevan in the top of the inning and pitched out of a jam to preserve a one-run lead. She finished out the save.

Golden Valley coach Ross Cruickshanks said the game turned when his team was unable to make the defensive plays in the third inning.

“It should have been a tie game, all the runs we gave up that inning were unearned,” he said. “I like the way we still battled, but errors will kill you. That changed the whole complexion of the game.”

The win puts some separation between Atwater, Golden Valley and Turlock (4-5) in the standings. The Falcons trail Pitman (6-3) by one game for second.

“This was a really big win,” Robert Santistevan said. “We can’t afford any more losses because we don’t want to be fighting for third. We want to wrap up second place.”

Merced 5, Turlock 1 in Turlock – Madilyn Nickles recorded her fourth no-hitter of the season and set a career high with 18 strikeouts. Megan Kravec hit her fourth home run of the season and drove in four runs for the Bears (14-5, 7-1 CCC).

Pitman 9, Buhach Colony 4 in Atwater – Alexis Mettler struck out 12 hitters as the Pride improved to 6-3 in the CCC. Hunter Gibson and Paytin Mercado each drove in a pair of runs for the Thunder (2-7).

Le Grand 12, Gustine 11 in Le Grand – Arisbeth Ceja hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning to help the Bulldogs improve to 5-2 in the Southern League in a game that saw the teams combine for 31 hits. Madison Furtado led the Le Grand 17-hit attack with four hits.

Baseball

El Capitan 11, Central Valley 5 in Ceres – Braiden Ward, Tyler Skelton and Fernando Rodriguez each had two hits as the Gauchos improved to 5-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. Ward and Rodriguez also knocked in two runs each.

This story was originally published April 15, 2015 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Atwater softball beats Golden Valley amid playoff push."