Capuchino wins rivalry softball showdown

In the main event, Motroni, Gutierrez, and everyone else in green and gold was celebrating — not only the win, but stepped onto the field for the first time playing against friends they’ve grown up with even been teammates in their own youth softball days.

“Just seeing them, it was very awesome,” Gutierrez said. “The teams, we just have so much relation, it’s just sick. Just talking in between the game, it’s just nice chemistry.”

And what battle it was. Despite the Mustangs (7-4) knocking the ball around the yard to the tune of 18 hits, Mills kept firing back. Cap scored in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 4-0 lead. But after the Lady Vikings managed just one hit the first time through the lineup, they rallied back with two runs in the fourth and two more in the top of the fifth to tie it 4-all.

“What I’ve always been saying is we’re fighters,” Mills head coach Michelle Beauchemin said. “We claw our way back all the time. We don’t give up. Sometimes it’s little by little, sometimes it’s all at once. But either way they never give up their fight.”

Then it was time for Gutierrez to bust out the celebration dance after leading off the bottom of the fifth with a line-drive triple.

“I feel that my aggressiveness, it pretty much stayed the same and almost increased,” Gutierrez said. “Mills is like a rival. So, I came out really excited and just tried to stay positive. I just want to help my team and just have fun.”

Four of the next five Mustangs would also record hits, with an RBI single from senior Nadia Keishk; a single by senior Lola Sierra with Keishk scoring on play on a two-base error; an RBI single by senior cleanup hitter Avery Motroni; and two runs scoring on a two-out single by sophomore Setaita Mau.

“They swung it,” Capuchino head coach Tanya Borghello said. “They swung it a lot. It was good for them. We knew she was slow. We struggle with slow pitching. So, it was good. It was nice to see them come out and hit the ball really hard.”

Mills’ offense kept the pressure on Cap’s starting pitcher Sierra, however. The senior left-hander was throwing gas from the outset, and had the Vikings shooting foul ball after foul ball toward their own on-deck hitters, and once that nearly picked off their first-base coach. But as the game progressed, Mills continued to chip away.

“The first inning was a little rough,” Mills sophomore Jazzy Maske said, “but after we got used to the speed and we had each other’s backs, we made adjustments, and we were able to claw back.”

Maske struck out in each of her first two at-bats, but went 2 for 4 on the day with a triple and two RBIs. Her biggest swing came amid a three-run rally in the sixth to cut the deficit to 9- with a scorched two-run triple into the left-field corner. Maske opted against the celebration dance and enjoyed a more animated fist pump after reaching third.

The Vikings (10-3-1) kept the pressure on in the seventh, loading the bases with one out on a single by Gabby Moreno, a walk by Bailey Beauchemin and a single by Gina Hillman.

Borghello, though, opted to stay with her left-handed senior Sierra in the circle.

“I asked her if she was good, she said yes,” Borghello said. “She’s my senior. If my senior tells me she’s good, I go with it.”

Sierra finished out the complete-game victory with back-to-back strikeouts, giving her nine on the night — one shy of her season-high.

Still, it was a moral victory for Mills of the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division to hang with its rival from the upper PAL Bay division.

“We haven’t been able to play them in so long,” Maske said. “I think they see us just as a ‘C’ team, we’re so low. I feel like this game, we really wanted to prove that we could play up there, that we could play up to their level, and just keep fighting and show that just because we’re smaller than them, we’re younger than them, we can stay play up to this level.”

Sierra also enjoyed a perfect night at the plate, going 4 for 4 with a doubles and two RBIs. Avery Motroni finished with three hits and two RBIs.

Gutierrez said she’d like to see the Cap-Mills rivalry become an annual matchup.

“Definitely,” Gutierrez said. “I love the energy that we had. This was probably the most energetic we’ve been as a team, and the effort was really amazing to see. It was just really, really fun to play.”