OTTERS vs. STANISLAUS STATE HIGHLIGHTS


SEASIDE, Calif. — The Cal State Monterey Bay softball seniors wrote a Hollywood style ending to their collegiate careers Saturday, figuring prominently in a walk–off 5–4 win over Stanislaus State at the Otter Sports Complex to cap the 2016 season.

The win gives the Otters a 25–25–1 record for the 2016 season. It's the seventh time in CSUMB's 11 seasons of softball that the team has finished at or above .500. That history includes three regular season CCAA titles in the past four seasons.

Senior leftfielder Marielle Valdez (Atwater/Merced College) beat out a single to short with runners on the corners and one out in the seventh inning to plate Jayme Stark (La Quinta HS) with the game–winner. Stark hit a 1–out double and moved to third on Courtney Varela's (Torrance HS) infield single to set the stage for Valdez.

Valdez's hit made a winner of senior Bianca Noriega (Camarillo HS), who came on in relief of Tori Pierucci (San Mateo/Hillsdale HS) to work out of a bases, no–out jam after Stanislaus had rallied to tie the game with four runs in the sixth. Noriega threw two innings of hitless, shutout relief, fanning three, to earn her 12th win of the season.

Perhaps the most inspirational moment of the day came at the beginning of Game 2 when injured ace Lindsey Clarkson (Fresno/Central HS) got the start and threw the first pitch of the game—a strike. Pierucci came on and tossed five innings of stellar "relief" before Stanislaus rallied in the sixth.

An RBI single by Katie Ramos (Placentia/El Dorado HS) and a mammoth solo shot by Noriega, her fifth of the season, staked Pierucci to a 2–0 lead. Ramos led off the fifth inning with her first homer of the season and Courtney Hennings (Amador Valley HS) added a run–scoring double to make it 4–0 Otters after five.

But Pierucci, who was working on a string of 23 1/3 scoreless innings, couldn't make it through the sixth. Two infield singles and a walk loaded the bases with no outs. Light–hitting Nicolette Vizcaino, who had just one extra base hit in 123 at bats entering the inning, doubled to the left center gap to plate all three. Another walk and infield single loaded the bases—still with no outs—before Noriega came in to work her magic.

The win overshadowed a tough opening game in which Noriega made a single mistake that Ruby Quiralte pounced on for a 2–run homer in the first inning, leading to a 2–1 Stanislaus victory. Noriega fanned seven and allowed just three hits over the final six innings, but the Otters managed just three hits of their own against Warrior starter Kylie Ragsdale.

Ragsdale came on in relief of Kylie Callazo in the sixth inning of Game 2. The Otters welcomed her back to the circle with four hits in just an inning and a third.

The rest, as they say, is history.