High School Softball Playoffs : Victory Sounds Sweet to El Camino Real in City Semifinal

For a moment, El Camino Real catcher Jenny Fleming had to wonder.

Was the sound she heard that of the ball making contact with her mitt?

Or was it the her team’s collective sigh of relief?

Either way, Katrina Vieane had swung at, and missed, Beth Silverman’s pitch for a game-ending strikeout that allowed El Camino Real to escape with a 5-4 victory over Sylmar in a City Section 4-A Division semifinal game Thursday at South Gate Park.

“Oh, God, I could barely catch that last pitch,” Fleming said. “It seems like they always give us a good game.”

Sylmar certainly did this time, as the Spartans mounted a seventh-inning rally that was nerve-wracking not only for Fleming, but the rest of the Conquistadores as well.

“I’m still shaking right now,” El Camino Real’s Lisa Huffaker said, a few minutes after the game was over. “I can’t believe we won. I feel so relieved, I really do. This is very special to us.”

The Conquistadores especially wanted the win because El Camino Real had been thrashed, 13-4, by Sylmar in last season’s final.

“We wanted revenge,” Fleming said. “We wanted this game so bad. I wore my cross to bed last night and prayed.”

In the bottom of the seventh, it was looking like El Camino Real (21-4) might need divine intervention to hold on for the victory, which advances the Conquistadores to the final Wednesday against San Pedro.

El Camino Real scored all of its runs in the first inning on five hits and a Sylmar error. Sylmar battled back, scoring single runs in the first and third.

That still left Sylmar (13-8) behind, 5-2, entering the seventh, but two hits, a fielder’s choice, a wild pitch by Silverman and an error by Huffaker allowed the Spartans to score twice and pull to within 5-4.

With just one out. And with Sylmar’s Cherrie Warren standing on third.

“Oh, I just wanted to get that last batter out of there,” said Silverman, still shaking her head minutes after the game.

But actually, Silverman (18-4) got the last two batters out of there as Sylmar cleanup hitter Chris Parks grounded to Huffaker at short and Vieane missed Silverman’s pitch heard ‘round the field.