For the final time, at least for a while, the Pioneer and Woodland High School varsity softball teams faced off in a Golden Empire League matchup this week.
The Patriots (14-5, 8-1 GEL) are headed to the Monticello Empire League in the fall while the Wolves (5-13, 3-6) remain in the GEL. Pioneer traveled to the city’s west side Wednesday afternoon and earned a 17-0 victory in five innings against its crosstown rivals.
“We lost 21-0 to Dixon the other day and it just felt like we got demoralized and let it get to us. Today, I thought we had good energy, we played well, they’re just a better team than we are. They can really hit the stink out of the ball. I thought our pitchers did well, made the plays when we needed to, so I was happy with our overall effort,” said Woodland coach Paul Vietti. “It’s going to be weird to not have this in league play, it’s always going to be a rivalry.
“There is never not going to be a rivalry when you’re in the same city boundaries. They’ve proven over the years that they are a great program, have won a lot of games and are battling again to win another league title. We are striving to build up and challenge them at some point, even if it’s not in league.”
Since losing back-to-back games for the first time this year, the Patriots have won five in a row, with four shutouts. Pioneer has outscored its opponents 53-1 during the streak.
“I was very satisfied. They made a lot of good adjustments to the pitching. I thought we were going to face Addy (Tetreault), instead we faced Taylin, so I think we made some really good adjustments,” said Patriots coach Linda Merrida. “It was great and nice to get everybody in the game to be a part of it. It took a long time to get everybody in because the score was so close in the early innings. Most of the time, they’ve been playing way behind in the first two innings, so they did a good job holding us and should be given kudos for that.”
Pioneer scored 4 runs in the first frame, 2 in the second, 1 in the third, 8 in the fourth and 2 in the fifth before the 10-run mercy rule was triggered. The explosive offense was led by the dynamic duo of junior third baseman Sofia Hernandez and sophomore shortstop Marisa Bryson, who each left the yard with a home run.
The Bash Sisters lead the GEL in homers. Bryson has 5 in her last eight contests and 7 total. Hernandez has 5 thus far, which is already 2 more than her total from last season.
“I thought we did really good and adjusted to their pitching. That’s one thing that we’ve really worked on at practice, our coaches really encouraged us to do that and obviously by the score, we did really good on that,” Hernandez explained. “It was really memorable because we all grew up with these girls playing rec ball. It was really nice to play them one more time (in the GEL) and hopefully we can play them next year for my senior season.”
Bryson was perfect at the plate Wednesday and tallied a game-high 5 runs batted in. The sophomore superstar was 4-for-4 with 3 extra base hits and 3 runs scored. Hernandez went 2-for-3 with 1 double, 1 HR, 2 RBI and 2 runs.
“I thought I did pretty good adjusting to the pitching and really waiting. My dad and mom really encouraged me to do that because they always push me to wait and wait,” Hernandez recalled. “Abril’s work in the outfield has been amazing! Marisa’s hitting (has stood out).”
Four other Patriots racked up multiple hits. Junior outfielder Abril Parker also had a flawless performance going 4-for-4 with 1 double, 1 RBI and 1 run. Junior batterymates, right-handed pitcher Jia Beebe and catcher Ashley Gruben, recorded 3 hits each. Sophomore first baseman Caitlin Mayfield contributed 2 hits.
Beebe (12-4) tossed all 5.0 innings in the circle, allowing only 3 hits and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts on 69 pitches.
Junior left-hander Taylin Gill pitched the first 3.1 frames for the Wolves, allowing 18 hits and 15 runs. Senior RHP Nayeli Cardenas tossed the final 1.2 innings in relief, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs.
“Taylin pitched really well. That’s the longest she’s gone this year because she didn’t get eligible until halfway through,” Viettti recalled. “She hasn’t really built up her strength but she was able to go into the fourth inning and throw almost 100 pitches, so that’s really good for her. It was nice to see her out there battling, and it’s hard when they’re hitting bombs on you to just keep pumping it in. But we want them to keep throwing strikes and she did.”
Junior 3B Emily Rathjen and seniors, 1B Maddie Burkhart and OF Maddy Leach, each tallied a hit.
Woodland has four games remaining in the regular season, with three versus GEL foes. The Wolves host Rio Linda on Monday at 4:30 p.m. Three days later, Woodland travels to West Sacramento to play Yolo County rival River City at 4 p.m.
“We were counting down our practices and games. A lot of the seniors, it’s really bugging them and you can tell,” Vietti explained. “But whatever you put into it, you want to put your all into it. I keep hounding them to keep our energy to get better and work. You’ve only got four more games and four more practices, so let’s keep doing it!”
No. 16 Pioneer will travel to No. 10 Vacaville on Friday to play against a future MEL foe at 4 p.m.
“A common opponent that Vacaville just had was Vanden. They went eight, extra innings, Vanden won in the bottom of the eighth 1-0. We played Vanden last week and won 6-0,” Merrida recalled. “It should be a good game. We’re looking forward to facing Xochitl (Atayde), who pitched against us. I think we’re a better team this year because last year, all the sophomores were freshmen, so we had a really young team. We’re looking forward to good competition so we can execute the short game and more base running situations.”
The Patriots remain on the road Monday at 4:30 p.m. in Orangevale at Casa Roble for GEL action.
“We’re really determined to do this. Dixon was our hardest opponent,” Hernandez foretold. “We all settled down and realized we can beat every other team, we’ve done it before. So I think we’ll have no problem winning league.”
