Aragon softball team comes out swinging, beats Carlmont in league opener

The back-and-forth battle saw Aragon (1-0 PAL Bay, 1-1 overall) take three leads in the game, with Carlmont coming back to tie it twice. And the Lady Scots (0-1, 1-5) had a third comeback in their sights in the bottom of the seventh before right fielder Marlena Marshall made a game-saving catch to end it.

“With Carlmont, we always come out close,” Aragon senior Mia Gacutan said. “We had to battle a lot, and it was just back and forth innings. We all fought really hard … everyone hit great, everyone played great.”

Heading into the bottom the seventh trailing 9-5, Carlmont rallied for three runs and had a shot to tie. Dana Knoble stepped to the plate with Sophia Stone at first base and promptly hit a flare to shallow right field. Marshall saved the day though with a sliding catch — as Stone was flying around the base paths and had a chance to score — to wrestle the game’s final out.

Yet it was Aragon’s dynamic duo of juniors Megan Grant and Liv DiNardo who breathed life into Aragon’s season. The league opener was just the second overall game of the season for the Dons, after a 12-0 loss to St. Francis in their season opener April 13. Grant and DiNardo did not play in that game — they were at a tournament with their travel team the West Bay Warriors — making Tuesday’s showdown with Carlmont their 2021 debut.

DiNardo homered twice and Grant also went deep to demonstrate the power that defined their freshman season of 2019. And they hit the ground running Tuesday, much in part to staying sharp throughout the pandemic closures by taking plenty of batting practice.

“For me and Megan, we hit every day,” DiNardo said. “It’s just kind of our routine with going to Warriors and just knowing how hard we can push ourselves. And then everybody (at Aragon), since we’ve got the OK, we’ve been out here practicing.”

It was a day for unsung heroines, though. Marshall — a late defensive substitution in right field — was playing in just her second varsity game. It was the same for No. 9 hitter Mia Gacutan, who was making her second varsity start.

It was Gacutan’s gutsy plate appearance that gave the Dons the lead for good. Amid a 5-5 tie in the top of the fifth inning, Aragon loaded the bases to get its No. 9 hitter to the plate with two outs. Gacutan ran the count to 2 balls, 2 strikes, only to take a borderline fastball just off the outside for ball 3. She then foul tipped a ball to stay alive.

Gacutan quelled her nerves by utilizing a technique her mother preaches to her constantly.

“Breathe,” Gacutan said. “Just take the weight off your shoulder, just focus really hard, tune everything out as much as you can and just keep breathing. And I guess just focus on what you’ve got to do.”

On the following pitch, however, Carlmont pitcher Ava Conti took Gacutan’s breath away by drilling her in the ribs with a fastball. The pain was worth it as the hit by pitch forced home the go-ahead run in the person of Iris Nai, awarding an RBI to Gacutan.

“Completely fine,” Gacutan said. “I actually get hit a lot. It’s OK, nothing new.”

Aragon greeted Carlmont starter Sarissa Block with a hit parade in the first inning. Samantha Kennedy led off the game with a sharp single to left. Then, after Grant and DiNardi each flew out on towering balls to center field, Nai put the Dons on the board with a two-out double. Rae D’Amato followed with an RBI double to make it 2-0.

But Block and Carlmont answered right back, as the Scots’ starting pitcher also hits No. 3 in the order, and ripped two-run double to score Gabbie Lee and Audrey Schreiner to tie it 2-2.

Aragon took the lead right back, powered by Grant and DiNardo. After Kennedy reached on a scoring error, Grant crushed a two-run homer to right. DiNardo followed by hitting a solo bomb to almost the exact same spot as Grant’s, putting the Dons up 5-2.

In the bottom of the second, the seesaw battle continued. Knoble and Cynthia Leong led off the inning with back-to-back walks. Aragon starting pitcher Brooke Tran nearly navigated out of the jam, but with two outs an outfield error allowed Knoble and Leong both to score to narrow Aragon’s lead to 5-4. The Scots went on to tie it in the fourth on an RBI single by Schreiner.

Schreiner reached base in all four of her plate appearances, going 3 for 4 with and RBI and a run scored.

“I think we could have definitely played a lot better,” Schreiner said. “I think we came back too late … if we would have come back earlier it would have been better. But I think our team shaped up at the end, and we can only go forward from here.”

After Aragon scored an insurance run on DiNardo’s sixth-inning solo homer, then added two runs in the seventh on a clutch two-run double by Kennedy, Schreiner and the Scots made some noise in their final at-bat, sparked by Schreiner’s one-out single.

“I’m thinking — just try to get the rally going,” Schreiner said. “I’m not thinking individually at this point. I’m just thinking — string along hits. We don’t need home runs. We just need to get runs on the board and put some pressure on the defense.”

The sophomore also turned in a defensive gem in the fourth inning. With Gacutan at first, DiNardi singled to left-center. But when Gacutan attempted to advance to third, Schreiner dropped the hammer with a precise throw to third base to cut down the runner for the third out of the inning.

“We work on throws all the time,” Schreiner said. “I’ve been put in center because I can throw the ball pretty well.”

Grant and DiNardo continue to prove one of the greatest shows on the Peninsula in any sport. In each of their first two at-bats, the two appeared to be playing a game akin to the basketball favorite H-O-R-S-E. In her first at-bat of the season, Grant hit a towering fly out to the warning track in center. DiNardo followed with a similar fly out to nearly the same spot. Then, in the second inning, their back-to-back home runs landed in almost identical spots beyond the right-field wall.

“I feed off Megan’s energy, I think she feeds off mine,” DiNardo said. “It’s a little competition, a little do what’s best for the team, but still having fun.”