Norco softball team beats Roosevelt in walk-off fashion to clinch Big VIII League title – Press Enterprise

NORCO — The final steps toward winning another Big VIII League championship haven’t been the easiest for the Norco softball team.

For the second game in a row, Norco trailed after three innings. But for the second time in a row, the Cougars clawed their way to a win.

Sophomore second baseman Sasha Pham led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a triple and scored the decisive run when she beat a throw to the plate as the Cougars escaped with a 7-6 victory over Roosevelt on Monday afternoon to capture the Big VIII. League title outright.

Last week, Norco scored five unanswered points to defeat King 9-6. On Monday, the Cougars trailed Roosevelt 3-0 and reached the bottom of the third inning.

“You’d like to win them easily, but wins like this are going to be important come playoff time,” Norco coach Rick Robinson said. “And what games like this show, more than anything, is that this is truly a team effort. It takes contributions from many players to achieve victories like this.”

Roosevelt (12-9, 6-3 in league) took the lead in the top of the third inning, when Lotolelei Sivas led off with a triple and scored on a single by Jasmine Goins. Priscilla Llamas then launched a home run well over the right field wall to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 3-0.

Norco (21-3, 9-0) narrowed the deficit starting in the bottom of the third inning. Pham also led off the inning with a triple and scored on a wild pitch. Dakota Potter’s sacrifice fly scored Tamryn Shorter to put the Cougars up 3-2 after three innings.

Norco sent 10 batters to the players in the fourth inning, scoring a total of four runs against Roosevelt starter Jazmine Chavez and Llamas to take the lead. Back-to-back doubles from Ariel Reyes and Leighton Gray tied the game, and the Cougars took a 4-3 lead when Gray scored on an error. Pham scored on a wild pitch, and Ashley Duran later walked with the bases loaded, giving Norco a 6-3 lead.

Roosevelt outscored the Cougars 14-6 in Monday afternoon’s game, but Norco’s offense took full advantage of seven walks and four wild pitches.

Llamas got into a rhythm and retired eight batters in a row between the fourth and sixth inning. Then it was Roosevelt’s turn to rally. Llamas singled for a run in the top of the fifth inning, and Aubrey McLaughlin followed with an RBI double to cut the deficit to one run.

Roosevelt reached the final out in the top of the seventh inning, when pinch-hitter Joryn Chatman came up with two runners in scoring position. Chatman dropped a single to shallow right to bring in Goins with the tying run. McLaughlin was swept around third, but Potter made a perfect throw to catcher Ashlyn Braun to bring down McLaughlin and end the inning. It was the fourth time Roosevelt had a runner thrown out on base.

“I saw her (McLaughlin) go all the way, so I knew I had to throw it as far as I could and as fast as I could,” Potter said of that throw home.

Potter saved another run in the top of the eighth, as she made a running catch in the gap, robbing Sivas of extra bases and probably RBI.

Pham, the No. 9 hitter in Norco’s lineup, led off the bottom of the eighth with an opposite-field-line drive just inside the first base bag.

“I was just thinking about putting the ball in play. I just had to be smart on the bases,” said Pham, who raced around for her second triple.

Shorter then bounced a ball to Sivas at the short stop. But Pham moved away after contact and beat the throw to the plate, giving Norco the walk-off victory.

Roosevelt found itself tied for second in the standings with King with one match remaining. Gabe Roman took over the program on an interim basis when Katrina Pinkowski resigned earlier this month for personal reasons. Roman has been coaching the program for ten years.

“Right now it’s about building chemistry and trust between everyone,” Roman said. “This is my tenth year here, so a lot of these players have known me since they came up the ranks. There was a sense of uncertainty for a few days, but I think a level of comfort is starting to get there now.

“I was very proud of the attack today. We had some really solid hits. Unfortunately. the baserunning errors we made turned out to be very costly.”

Peyton May picked up her second straight win out of the bullpen, allowing three runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 inning while striking out seven batters. May pitched five scoreless innings in the win over King last week. Chavez and Llamas combined to record 10 strikeouts for Roosevelt.

Azusena Lopez went 3-for-4 for Roosevelt, while Goins, Llamas, Sivas and Sequoia Sanchez each had two hits for the Mustangs.