Emotional Victory for a Monarch

Mater Dei’s Monica Lucatero went on a wild ride of emotions Saturday night in the Division I softball championship. She went from depression to sheer elation in a matter of three innings.

Lucatero, a sophomore, committed an error in the third inning that allowed Camarillo’s Tommee Payan to score and put the Scorpions up, 1-0.

But in the sixth inning, Lucatero hit a two-run double that gave the Monarchs their first softball championship.

“I just tried to shake it off,” Lucatero said of the error. “I knew I had to bury it and keep my hopes up.”

She not only kept her hopes up, when she came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, she drilled the first pitch she saw in the sixth to the wall in right-center, scoring Robin Walker and Marissa Young.

“I knew she kept coming in with her first pitch a strike,” Lucatero said. “I said I was going to hit it. It was the best feeling in the world.”

In the top of the third with two outs, Brooke Rutschman reached on an infield single to short.

Lucatero dropped the throw from shortstop Walker and Payan scored from third.

“I was pretty bummed,” Lucatero said. “I didn’t want to let my teammates down. But they all told me not to worry.”

Second baseman Kelsey Kollen immediately approached Lucatero to tell her to shake it off.

“I said to Monica, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ ” Kollen said.

“ ‘We’re a great hitting team, don’t let what happens in the field affect you at the plate. Don’t worry were going to get them.’ ”

This year’s title makes up for last year’s loss in the final to Marina.

And the Monarchs are a young team, with seven starters returning next season.

“We want to be here next year,” Lucatero said. “It does make up for last year. It made us all want it more.

“We want to be here next year and we will.”

If Lucatero has anything to do with it.