In a game with no shortage of hits, the Palo Alto High School varsity softball team (7-14, 4-4) fell to Wilcox (7-15, 4-4) 6-4 for the sixth time in three years on Tuesday afternoon at Paly. Coming into the game, the two teams were tied for third in league with three contests remaining before playoffs. Despite missing a few key players due to sickness and injury, the Lady Vikes battled through a close game until the final out.
In the first inning, Paly jumped out to an early 1-0 lead as second baseman Maya Padilla (’13) singled at the leadoff spot and was subsequently advanced to second and third on two sacrifice hits by Anna Gale (’11) and Gracie Marshall (’11). Third baseman Hannah Bundy (’14) singled to center field, driving Padilla home.
The second inning was dead for both teams as they each went three and out.
In the third, Wilcox tied the game 1-1 as infielder Tiffany Tulowitzki (’12) scored after her team singled twice and had a sacrifice fly. A dropped ball in the outfield by Paly’s Ashley Berry (’13) brought Wilcox’s Brianna Massey (’12) home for the second run of the inning.
In the bottom of the third, Padilla had her second single of the game, and was moved over to second by Gale on a sacrifice bunt. Marshall sent Padilla home with a line drive double that landed by the outfield fence. With Bundy up to bat, Marshall advanced to third, and then home on a wild pitch. The Lady Vikes regained the lead 3-2.
The fourth was another dead inning for both teams as two Lady Vikes struck out and a third popped out to end the inning.
“We needed to have players step up today, and Maya did an excellent job stepping up in the leadoff spot. The thing that really killed us were the tiny mistakes on defense,” Marshall said. “They were small errors but we need to get a handle on them. Also we had too many dead innings and we need to get the bats going earlier.”
At the top of the fifth, the first three Wilcox batters singled, which sent the Chargers’ Alyssa Villanueva (’13) home to tie the score at three all. With two runners on, catcher Stephanie Pickard (’12) launched one to the fence for a double. The hit produced two runs for the Chargers as they took the lead 5-3.
Coming up big for the Lady Vikes, Padilla had her third consecutive single in the bottom of the fifth. Gale advanced Padilla to second with a ground out to the pitcher. And for the second time Marshall drove Padilla home on a single to center field. After five innings, Paly trailed Wilcox 4-5.
In the sixth, Wilcox added to its lead after a sacrifice groundout which scored outfielder Cori Aggarwal (’14). The bottom of the sixth was uneventful for Paly, but in the seventh Marshall made three back-to-back pop-out catches to give the Lady Vikes one more chance to tie or take the lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, still trailing 4-6, Paly found itself one out away from its second straight loss. Padilla came up one last time and went down two strikes. With the third, she drove the ball deep to left field for her fourth hit of the game. The Lady Vikes ended the game with an out on the next play, but overall it was a solid performance for the team.
“We played pretty well, but there were a couple plays where they got good hits and were able to score the runs,” Padilla said. “With my hitting today, the team picked me up, I just didn’t get phased. Right before I came up [in the seventh] I kept reminding myself ‘don’t freak out’, ‘wait for your pitch’ and ‘when you see it, drive it’.”
Despite the loss, Padilla was 4 for 4, with three runs.
Head coach Tim Anderson echoed Padilla’s thoughts about the performance. “The thing is, we don’t have any margin of error,” Anderson said. “We can’t seem to score enough runs to overcome small errors. But we all wanted it so badly. We can’t look at the big picture, we play Mountain View on Thursday and we need to come out smoking. We have to look at every game and have some fun.”
The Lady Vikes play away at Mountain View on Thursday at 4:00 pm. On Saturday May 7th, the team will play its senior game at home. The Lady Vikes are graduating six seniors.
