By Ben Wiley Youth Writer For ANN
Photos by Ben Wiley
Already the 2024 regular-season league champions, the Encinal High School Jets’ softball team (19-4) booked their spot in the West Alameda-County Shoreline postseason tournament final with their sixth straight home win, a resounding 14-to-4 mercy rule victory against the San Leandro High School Pirates (15-10).
The semi-final encounter, which took place on May 8 at Alameda’s Washington Park softball field, got off to a fast start as Encinal’s senior catcher Amy Screechfield tagged a San Leandro runner attempting to steal home to end the top of the first inning. Cognizant of this game’s high stakes, both teams started with their best pitcher in the circle. The Jets jumped out to an early lead off Pirates’ junior pitcher Marina Sacrey. The hosts got two runners on and then, with two outs in the bottom of the first, their senior pitcher Celeste Hurtubise lined a two-run double over the left fielder’s head driving in the game’s first runs. The next batter, sophomore Cameron Tran, knocked her in with a double of her own.
Over the next couple of innings, Hurtubise did a great job weaving out of trouble and keeping the Pirates off the scoreboard thanks to timely strikeouts and stellar defensive plays from the infielders behind her. For instance, the Jets stifled one of the visitors’ most promising rallies when a hitter smashed a line drive right to senior second baseman Jazzy Alcantar, who caught it and then flipped to sophomore shortstop Kiely Wong to double off the runner on second base.
On the other hand, Encinal took advantage of multiple defensive miscues by San Leandro to widen their lead. They scored twice more in the second inning on a bad throw from Sacrey to her first baseman and then on a dropped fly-ball by the Pirates’ left fielder. Things only got worse for the Jets’ opponents in the fourth inning as more defensive and pitching shortcomings led to the hosts going up by double-digits.
The Pirates swapped pitchers with sophomore Julianna Morales replacing starting pitcher Sacrey, yet that move failed to stop the bleeding. Alcantar greeted Morales with a two-run double to left field, the first of four straight RBI hits by the talented Jets hitters.
The Pirates finally broke through for some positive momentum in their half of the fifth inning, scoring four runs off of Hurtubise, including Sacrey’s crushed two-run home run over the left-field fence. Hoping the home run would fire her up, Sacrey returned to the circle but wound up conceding two more runs, the Jets’ 14th of the afternoon, sounding the mercy alarm and ending the game before the completion of the fifth frame.
Hurtubise made up for her rocky final pitching inning by driving in her team’s last run, the all-around standout recording her third hit and RBI of the contest. It is a testament to the strength of Encinal’s lineup that they scored 14 runs, even though arguably their best hitter Lola Whalen had somewhat of a down game offensively.
After the game, Jets’ head coach Maureen Layag complimented her team’s standout performance against a good San Leandro squad.
“I am happy with how the team played. We have been short players all year with injuries, school things, etc, so I was really happy to have the whole team today and it showed,” Layag said.
Hurtubise, who shared the league Most Valuable Player honors with Whalen last season, also expressed pleasure at her and her team’s performance and excitement for the games to come.
“I was proud of my performance. Even though I gave up that last home run, I came back and got the walk-off hit. I am very excited for Friday. We will see how that goes, but I think Friday’s going to be a really good game. We are trying to go further in the tournament after this, so we don’t stop on Friday, we keep going, “ Hurtubise said.
Encinal must now prepare for the league tournament title game in which they will face a Berkeley High School team they have already beaten twice this season.
The Jets will turn toward the 2024 North Coast Section (NCS) softball tournament following that matchup. It bodes well that they are fully healthy and playing well heading into these increasingly tough upcoming games.
