Aragon softball bows out in Central Coast Section semifinals

While Aragon’s run in the CCS tournament is over, Dons head coach Liz Roscoe confirmed the team will play in the inaugural CIF Northern California softball tournament, starting next Tuesday.

“Yes, we are,” Roscoe said.

After Aragon’s win over Los Gatos in the CCS opener Saturday, Roscoe said she was uncertain the team would apply to the Nor Cal tournament due to the number of players with conflicting travel ball commitments. Roscoe said the Dons expect to field their full roster — including senior standouts Liv DiNardo and Megan Grant — in the Nor Cal opener.

“We will have our full roster,” Roscoe said.

The show in the CCS semifinals, however, was St. Francis starting pitcher Shannon Keighran. The Burlingame native was dazzling through four innings of work, facing just two batters over the minimum while allowing one hit and striking out seven. And the right-hander was really bringing it, using a rising fastball to strike out Grant — who entered the game with one strikeout on the season — both times she faced her.

“I felt good,” Keighran said of how the ball was coming out of her hand. “The mound was a little weird because I haven’t been on dirt in a while, so that was an adjustment. But I think it came out pretty well.”

And the St. Francis bats put a quick dent in the scoreboard. The Lancers rallied for four runs in the first inning, highlighted by a three-run home run by cleanup hitter Sydney Stewart.

Aragon’s pitchers were under orders not to give Stewart anything to hit, Roscoe said. But when she stepped to the plate with one out and two runners on, it was difficult to pitch around her. Dons starter Rae D’Amato grooved one fastball, and that was enough for Stewart to blast her 13th home run of the season.

“Both pitchers were supposed to pitch around her,” Roscoe said. “That was the play. No strikes. That didn’t happen.”

Facing Aragon reliever Brooke Tran in the second, St. Francis added a pair of runs with a two-run home run by Jessica Oakland, her CCS leading 19th of the year. In the third, the Lancers sent nine batters to the plate, scoring three times before leaving the bases loaded when Tran escaped further damage with a strikeout.

Then Aragon turned to its secret weapon in DiNardo, who dispatched her father to the parking lot to retrieve her catcher’s gear from her Ford Ranger pickup truck. DiNardo took over behind the plate in the fourth inning. It was the first time she has caught for the Dons in two years. Tran went on to pitch three scoreless innings from there.

“With my back and everything it wasn’t the right time to catch last season, or this season,” DiNardo said. “But I was like: ‘OK, this is how we’re going to win the game.’ We put three zeroes on the board.”

The damage in the early innings could have been worse. Aragon right fielder Morgan Marburger returned to action after missing the CCS opener due to a positive COVID test and was immediately challenged. Marburger responded by making two slick running catches in the first, one by charging straight in on a looping liner by Brooke Deppiesse, and another one sprinting toward the foul line to rob Chloe Cummings of a hit to end the inning.

“She made a couple nice plays,” Roscoe said. “We’ve been working on her all year. Hopefully she’ll be coming up and be an upcoming star for us. She made some awesome plays today.”

Aragon’s moral victory came in the late innings in scratching out a pair of runs, one in the sixth and one in the seventh.

In the sixth, DiNardo led off the frame by topping a grounder into the hole between first and second and legging it out for an infield single. After advancing on a groundout and moving to third on a bunt, DiNardo sprinted home on a wild pitch by reliever Kate Munnerlyn to make it 9-1.

In the seventh, Brooklyn Blake set the table with a leadoff single to record a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate. Marlena Marshall reached on a walk. Then DiNardo scorched an RBI single over the bag at first to score Blake with the final run of the day.

“Our goal from the start was to get a run on the board,” DiNardo said. “It didn’t come until the sixth and the seventh, and we got two. It’s the way it is. We were just trying to win one game at a time. I think they’ve beaten us every single time we’ve ever played them. We put a run on the board. That’s better than anybody else can say they did against them.”

St. Francis now advances to Saturday’s CCS Open Division championship game to face Mitty. Venue and start time are yet to be announced.

“We’ve got Mitty, CCS, we couldn’t be more excited,” Keighran said. “I think it’s a great matchup. They’re the team we wanted to see. We’ve been rivals since day one. So, it will be a good game, I feel.”