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On May 7, when the Amador Valley softball team lost 2-1 to California in the first round of the East Bay Athletic League playoffs, the Dons fell to 12-11 on the season and the chance for postseason success did not look good.
There’s that old saying that “looks may be deceiving” — and the Dons made the statement come to life.
On Saturday night the Dons capped off an incredible postseason run, beating Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills 13-11 in nine innings to win the CIF NorCal Division I softball championship.
And it was a well-traveled road in the NorCal playoffs.
As the No. 8 seed in the eight-team field, the Dons had no chance for a home game.
Amador went on the road to Mountain View on May 28 to take on the defending NorCal champ and No. 1 seed Saint Francis. It was only a 64-mile round trip — it turned out to be the shortest of the week by far.
To the surprise of anyone in the softball community, the Dons stunned the Lancers 4-1 to advance to the semifinals.
From there came a trip to face No. 4 Clovis North, a 310-mile round trip. Once again, the Dons pulled off the upset, bouncing Clovis North from the tournament with a 7-2 win.
That set up the Saturday night finals in El Dorado Hills, with Oak Ridge only a 218-mile round trip.
Doing the math, that’s 592 miles traveled for three games in five days. And that was during finals week for Amador, topped with graduation ceremonies Friday night.
For perspective, San Diego is only 474 miles from Pleasanton.
The Dons were true “road warriors” and brought their game with them along the way.
In the first round of the CIF NorCal tournament, the Dons faced a Saint Francis team that was 28-0, No. 1 ranked in California and second in the nation.
Kaylee Davis went the distance in the circle for the Dons. She allowed five hits, struck out six and walked five.
On offense, Kaylee Davis had a single and double, Emerson Giles adding a pair of doubles. Lauren Tran had two singles, with Taylor Oxe and Riya Sharda each getting a hit.
In the semifinals, the Dons beat Clovis North 7-2, with Kaylee Davis again going the distance. She allowed nine hits, struck out four and allowed zero walks.
Sharda was huge at the plate with a double and two singles. McKenna Charbonneau hit a single and big two-run home run for the Dons in the third.
Ava Davis, Kaylee Davis, Giles and Tran each had a hit.
In the title game, it was all about the guts and determination of Kaylee Davis and her teammates to the extra-inning win.
She went eight innings in the circle, throwing 124 pitches, facing 43 batters and allowing 13 hits. Emily Bull pitched one inning, facing three batters and retiring all three.
Kaylee Davis also got the game-winning hit when she homered in the top of the ninth, scoring Tran and herself.
Mai Falcone had a two-run homer with hers coming in the eighth. Oxe had a solo home run in the eighth.
Tran ended the game with three singles, as did Sharda. Kaylee Davis had a double to go with her home run, with Charbonneau a pair of doubles.
Oxe also had a double to go with her solo shot, and Falcone tacked on a single to go with her bomb. Ava Davis and Bull added singles.
Granada baseball
The Matadors finished a dream season with a 6-4 win over St. Mary’s-Stockton to claim the CIF NorCal D-I baseball championship.
It was just an amazing season for the Matadors who came only a 5-2 loss against Amador on April 10 away from a perfect season and a likely Top 5 national ranking.
As Granada blew through the regular season with both the offense and pitching on fire, when it came to the postseason it was all about the young men on the hill.
In the seven postseason games, the Matadors’ pitching staff gave up six runs, with four of those coming in the NorCal championship game.
In the three-game CIF playoffs, the top-seeded Mats started with a 2-1 win over Clovis West, then followed with a 5-0 win over De La Salle in the semifinals.
The win over De La Salle was the third of the season over Spartans that has only happened one other time in EBAL history.
De La Salle averaged over eight runs a game this year and had one five-game stretch where they cranked out 18.4 runs a game. But the Granada staff held them scoreless for 21 straight innings in the North Coast Section finals and the CIF semifinals.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
