Defense comes back to haunt Merced in softball playoffs

Rheanne Lewis felt this was the year.

The Merced High School junior has played with some of her teammates since she was 10 and knew the Bears had a realistic chance to make a run at a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship.

During their five-game playoff run, the Bears proved they could play with the top teams in the section, but eventually, their defense let them down again.

Fifth-seeded Merced couldn’t overcome six errors as its season ended with a 7-6 loss to No. 3 seed Del Campo on Tuesday night at the Sacramento Softball Complex.

“It’s pretty hard to take, especially being up 6-5 in the last inning” said Lewis, who gave Merced the lead with an RBI single in the sixth. “Again, errors killed us. I don’t think I wanted anything so bad as making it to the championship game.”

Merced (23-8) made four errors combined in its three playoff wins and nine errors in its two postseason losses.

“The two games we lost because we just made too many mistakes,” Bears coach Bart McAfee said.

The Bears took a 2-1 lead in the second inning on back-to-back RBI bunt singles by Monique Collins and Liliana Ramirez.

Del Campo (21-10) responded with a three-run third inning. Merced gifted the Cougars two runs.

Maggie West led off the Del Campo third with a single, and Bryanna Rielley bunted the ball back to Merced pitcher Madilyn Nickles. The Bears’ ace picked it up and thought about throwing to second but instead contorted her body and threw to first without setting her feet. The ball hit the dirt and skipped past Katie England at first base.

Rielley raced around to score, and when Collins’ throw from right field ended up near the third-base dugout, Rielley circled the bases to give the Cougars a 3-2 lead. Del Campo tacked on another run in the inning on a wild pitch to take a 4-2 lead.

Nickles, who was throwing her fifth game in seven days, relied more on her spin than speed. The right-hander had her pitches dropping and darting all over, recording nine strikeouts. The Cougars’ hits weren’t hit hard but were well placed.

Nickles kept the Bears in the game as the offense came back.

Nickles, who went 11 for 16 in the playoffs, drove in a run with a single to left in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-3.

Merced then erupted for three runs in the sixth. Shelbee Ward doubled in a run, Collins followed with an RBI single, and Lewis delivered a two-out single to drive in Collins to give the Bears a 6-5 lead.

“I did what I could to get the girls pumped up,” Ward said. “I was able to get a hit to wake them up, and we were able to score some runs. It’s hard because we didn’t want to be done. We know we should have got further.”

Virginia Robello led off the Del Campo seventh with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. However, Robello was called out for interference when she made contact with Merced shortstop Missy Lalisan on a grounder to short.

That left the Cougars with a runner on first with one out. Del Campo pitcher Brooke Larsen then hit a routine grounder to Lalisan, but she bobbled the ball as she tried to get it out of her glove, and both runners were safe.

Vanessa Schulte followed with a single to score courtesy runner Valerie Farias with the tying run. The throw back into the pitcher caught Nickles by surprise, and the ball bounced off her ankle, allowing both runners to move to third and second.

Shyanne Props then ended the game with a single to left to score courtesy runner Malia Johnson.

“We’re as good as any team, in my opinion, if we come out and play our game,” McAfee said. “(Monday) night (against Vintage) we played great defense. (Tuesday) we didn’t make the plays.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 12:34 AM with the headline "Defense comes back to haunt Merced in softball playoffs."