SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sophomore infielder Kylee Garrett and senior catcher Isabelle Vela each collected two hits while junior Sorina Pometta delivered a two-run, pinch-hit single in the fourth, but St. Francis came up short in an 8-5 loss to St. Mary's during its 2023 softball season opener at Schuster Field Thursday afternoon.
The Troubadours, last year's Sac-Joaquin Section Division II runners-up, open the year at 1-0.
The matchup between two of the section's top Catholic schools was originally scheduled as a road contest at Stockton's Arnaiz Stadium. However, due to unplayable conditions at Arnaiz and thanks to the efforts of SF head coach Kevin Warren and his crew, the game was moved 45 miles north and 90 minutes up to the SF campus.
Garrett singled in the second as the Troubies' first baserunner then later rapped out an RBI double as part of a comeback effort in the seventh. Vela singled in each of the second and fourth frames, the latter of which came as part of a three-run rally that culminated in Pometta's pinch hit heroics and nearly erased what had been a 4-0 start for St. Mary's.
Garrett led off the fourth by reaching on a dropped pop-up, then Vela's single put two SF runners on. Claire Krotine followed Vela's hit by slashing a double down the left-field line, scoring Garrett and moving courtesy runner Isabelle Barge to third. Ram senior right-hander Ariel Nava retired the next two batters without incident before Pometta stepped in to replace starter Alexis McFarland. Pometta plated Krotine and Barge to pull St. Francis to within a 4-3 deficit.
Unfortunately for the Troubies, Nava helped her own cause with an RBI double in the next half inning to double the Rams' lead to 5-3. St. Mary's extended its lead to 6-3 on Hannah Hamm's RBI single in the sixth, then added two more tallies in the top of the seventh to pull ahead by 8-3.
In that Ram seventh, outfielders Pometta and senior Olivia McFarland collided on a fly ball in left center. McFarland made the catch and was able to get a throw back into the infield, but ended up exiting the game. This moved Pometta to center and brought in freshman Deanna Richardson, a call-up from the JV squad, to take over in left. During the bottom half of that inning, in her first at-bat as a Troubie, Richardson sliced a fly ball down the right-field line for a triple, scoring junior shortstop Francesca Guerrera. Garrett followed with a double that burned the Ram right fielder and brought in Richardson. But Nava ended the rally – and the game – by coaxing a ground ball to her third baseman, Rhea Rascon.
Another freshman, Reese Lewis, went the distance in the pitching circle for St. Francis. She struck out seven in taking the loss. Nava earned the complete-game win for St. Mary's, and provided her own run support not just with the RBI double in the fifth but also on a full-count, solo homer to left in the third.
The St. Francis varsity and junior varsity teams take on Rosemont for a non-league road doubleheader on Friday, also at 3:30.
