Aragon Dons take their final bows in Nor Cal softball opener

Back in January, while playing left field for her Warrior Academy club team, Horita collided with the shortstop on a pop-up and broke her left collarbone. She wasn’t cleared to resume game play until last Friday, making her eligible to play in the inaugural Nor Cal softball tournament.

“I think it was just a really nice way to not only just close out the season for me but close out my career here at Aragon,” Horita said. “I’m a senior. Yeah, that was special, being able to come out after not playing for so long and just get back into the game and actually do well, and actually feel good about myself.”

Horita’s return was a silver lining in a frustrating finish to Aragon’s season.

The dominant performance by Central Catholic starting pitcher Randi Roelling aside — not that one can dismiss the junior left-hander’s dazzling 16 strikeout day — the Dons arrived at their home diamond having to endure a one-two punch of bad news as two of their players were disqualified from playing in the Nor Cal tournament.

While the team’s stars, Megan Grant and Olivia DiNardo, each postponed the starts to their Warrior Academy club season in order to finish their season with Aragon, two other starting players participated in games with their club teams over the weekend, which disqualified them from the Nor Cal tournament.

“It’s a shame that you put your whole team — your selfishness — the whole team has played hard all year long,” Roscoe said.

Horita benefitted from the removal of the two players, both of whom regularly hit at the top of the batting order. The senior was told Monday she’d probably be in the starting lineup, but was still surprised in arriving at the yard Tuesday to see she was batting No. 3 in the lineup.

“A little bit (surprised),” Horita said. “I was surprised because I have not seen live pitching since January.”

Grant and DiNardo step up

When Aragon initially qualified for the Nor Cal tournament by advancing to the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Open Division tournament with an 8-0 win over Los Gatos in the playoff opener, the talk was the Dons would likely not apply for the Nor Cal tournament because so many players had previous commitments with travel ball teams.

Then the Aragon administration — specifically principal Valerie Arbizu and athletic director Steve Sell — made a pitch to the Dons in a meeting with the team last Monday. At that time, Roscoe was asked to parse together a team to play in the Nor Cal tournament, even if it meant promoting players from the junior-varsity team.

“At some point it was going to be a JV team almost,” Roscoe said. “And then the girls stepped up and said they wanted to play.”

Grant and DiNardo paved the way during a private team meeting. With the players sitting in left field of the Aragon diamond, they were asked for a show of hands as to how many wanted to play in the Nor Cal tournament.

“The first time they asked, nobody raised their hand, they just looked at me and Megan to see if we were going,” DiNardo said. “Then we raised our hands, and everybody raised their hands.”

Pac-12 futures abound

Grant and DiNardo glimpsed the future of collegiate pitching Tuesday as Roelling dominated with electric strikeout stuff. While Grant is signed to play softball at UCLA, and DiNardo is headed to University of Arizona, the junior Roelling is verbally committed to play at Cal.

The left-hander pitched through a second-and-third, one-out jam in the first inning by striking out the side. She went on to fan six straight batters and struck out at least two batters in every inning. No surprise there. Roelling entered the day ranked fifth in the nation in strikeouts among teams that submit statistics to MaxPreps.com. Her 16 strikeouts put her over 400 strikeouts on the season.

The Dons countered with sophomore left-hander Rae D’Amato, who had a tough assignment. One of the two disqualified players for Aragon was the team’s other pitcher. D’Amato has started nearly every game for the Dons this season but hadn’t worked more than four innings in a game. Tuesday marked her first complete game of the year.

Roelling put a quick wrinkle into D’Amato’s day, connecting with a two-run home run in the first. D’Amato actually made a good pitch, with a fastball just below the knee. But Roelling showed off impressive bat speed to catch up with D’Amato’s offering and drive a Herculean blast over the fence in left-center.

Central Catholic homered three times in the game. Noelany Ramirez hit a solo shot amid a five-run fourth. Emori Machado added a solo home run in the fifth.

Aragon bats quieted

Through all the ups and downs of Aragon’s postseason, let it be known legendary high school careers of Grant and DiNardo ended in a display of gritty softball play.

The Dons managed just four hits, paced by Horita, who was 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI. DiNardo added a single and scored Aragon’s only run in the third.

Roelling held Grant hitless in two at-bats, but Aragon’s star shortstop made several dazzling plays in the field, including a rangy play over the middle on a sharp grounder to glove it, make a quick 360-degree spin, and gun down leadoff batter Adison Machado at first base.

No. 9 batter Amelia Gullo extended the game by singling with two outs in the seventh.

DiNardo followed to make the game’s final out, ending the illustrious high school careers of she and Grant. The senior left it all on the field by busting her tail down the first base line, turning a routine grounder to second base into a bang-bang play at first.

“I was kind of thinking of that as I was running,” DiNardo said. “I was like: ‘Hey, it’s the end, but you might as well go out trying like we did all season.’ It’s all you can do.”

The Dons finish the year with a Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship banner, their second straight appearance in the CCS Open Division tournament, and a historic appearance in the first-ever Nor Cal softball tournament.

“I think it was a great season,” Roscoe said. “We did good in our division, which was a very tough division. A lot of diversity up and down sometimes, and we worked through most of it. Then you get to the end of the season and you’re playing top teams, you can’t afford to lose your players. Whether they be hurt or for some other reason. You have to have your top-notch team.”