Pacifica Is Inundated by a Deluge of Runs

No one could really believe it. Not the winners, and certainly not the losers.

Pacifica, trying to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive Southern Section Division III softball title, failed in the most unlikely way.

The Mariners were beaten, 8-0, by top-seeded Hacienda Heights Wilson in front of about 2,000 at Lakewood’s Mayfair Park on Friday.

“In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think this could happen,” said Wilson Coach Walt Martin, whose team last reached the final in 1974. “I thought, maybe 1-0, 2-1, but not 8-0. No way.”

Pacifica Coach Rob Weil said it didn’t matter if the score was 10-0 or 1-0.

“There’s no difference,” Weil said. “When you’re on the other side, it’s a little hard to swallow.”

Wilson (27-4-1) took advantage of some critical defensive lapses and the long ball.

Twice in the game, Wilson scored four runs in an inning, in the third and in the fifth.

Both teams got nine hits, but timing was everything.

Pacifica (24-9-1), for example, got three hits in the first inning, but failed to score. Diana Barreras was unable to sacrifice Jodie Legaspi to second base, and then popped into a double play on a hit-and-run. After two hits, by Mallorie Lenn and Angie Ortega, Tiare Auelua lined out to right field.

“That inning was very important,” said Wilson’s pitcher, DePaul-bound April Valdez (12-1), who walked two and struck out four. “If they had scored, our team would have been like, ‘Oh, no.’ We would have been a little bit intimidated.”

And Pacifica needed every little advantage it could get.

In the third inning, Pacifica pitcher Jessica Marical (17-2) walked the No. 8 hitter, Jessica DeGiacomo. After a sacrifice bunt, Tiffanie Wedell singled to left and Yvette Gonzalez then bunted the runners to second and third. Valdez followed with a grounder to the normally sure-handed Barreras, who was making her fourth start at shortstop in a section championship.

Barreras mishandled the ball, pinch-runner Jenny McCorkhill scored, and runners were safe at first and third.

“Yeah, I was [distracted by Wedell],” Barreras said of the runner in front of her going to third base. “I took my eyes off the ball and that caused me to bobble it.”

The next batter, No. 4 hitter Jaslyn Espinoza, then cleaned up. She hit a fly ball well over the fence in center field for a three-run homer and a 4-0 lead.

“It was a curve, a little up,” catcher Julie Jordan said. “[Then] it took off.”

But Jordan, like Marical, thought they should have been out of the inning a pitch earlier. Espinoza looked at a 1-2 offering that hit Jordan’s set glove. “Should have been called a strike,” Jordan said.

Even Espinoza realized her good fortune. “I guess it was kind of a strike,” said Espinoza, whose home run was her fourth.

Wilson added four runs in the fifth, and those runs were more than enough insurance. Pacifica stranded nine baserunners, five in scoring position.

“If you can’t score,” Weil said, “you don’t deserve to win.”