Hillsdale walks off with Nor Cal semifinal softball win

For a couple beats, no one seemed to realize the game was over — but it was.

Brum’s single up the middle on a 3-2 pitch propelled the top-seeded Knights into the Nor Cal Division III championship game after they walked off the Hawks, 3-2, in San Mateo Thursday afternoon.

“I was confused. I didn’t know what everyone was doing. I just made sure to stay on the base,” Brum said, before everyone realized it was the game-winning hit and the Knights came streaming out of the dugout to celebrate.

Hillsdale (20-9-1) scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first and the Knights doubled their lead with another unearned run in the fifth for a 2-0 lead. But Liberty (23-9) rallied with a pair of unearned runs in the top of sixth to set up the dramatics in the eighth.

Sophia Shelton, who had scored the Knights’ second run on a wild play, led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to center and stole second on the next pitch. She moved to third on Ania Aleshi’s flyout to right, prompting Liberty head coach Keith Davis to intentionally walk both DeMartini and Lola Jones to load the bases and set up force plays at any base.

The Hawks got the second out of the inning when starting pitcher Macie Webster induced a comebacker off the bat of Taylor O’Mahony and getting the out at the plate.

That brought up the freshman Brum, in the biggest at-bat of her life.

And she handled it like a four-year vet. She worked the count full and with no base open, Webster had to come to Brum and she came through, stroking a single right up the middle and into center field to plate DeMartini with the game-winning run.

“I was actually terrified,” Brum said. “You just have to stay focused. Don’t try to hit a home run. Just get a base hit.

“I just wanted to help my team win.”

“As a freshman, that is so much pressure to be under,” said Hillsdale head coach Eryn Butcher. “She kept it simple.”

It was anything but as Hillsdale built a 2-0 lead on a pair of weird runs. The Knights took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first without benefit of a hit. With one out, Aleshi drew a walk. DeMartini followed and reached on an error before Jones walked to load the bases and bring up O’Mahony. On a 1-2 pitch, O’Mahony took a full swing, only to see the ball dribble just a few feet in front of the plate. Liberty catcher Carly Jimenez pounced on the ball and threw to first for the second out — as Aleshi slid home behind her with the game’s first run.

“It’s been the theme of our postseason … to punch first,” Butcher said.

Webster didn’t give up a hit until Jones singled into the hole between third base and shortstop in the bottom of the fourth, but that threat was erased when the Hawks turned a 1-6-3 double play. Brum came up with a harmless, two-0ut single before Webster got a flyout to end the inning.

Hillsdale doubled its lead on a head’s up play from Shelton in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Shelton hit an opposite-field single to right. But instead of stopping, she rounded first and headed to second. The move caught the Liberty defense off guard and the second baseman threw the ball away trying to get Shelton.

As the ball rolled into left field, Shelton motored all the way around the bases to put the Knights up 2-0.

Shelton said she knew she was going to get to second base, at least.

“The first baseman had obstructed me and I knew it,” Shelton said, adding that the umpire had made the call.

But once the ball got thrown away, there was no way Shelton was stopping.

“I was like, ‘I’m going home,’” Shelton said. “In my mind, it was a dream.”

“I have a team that trusts their speed and are aggressive on the basepaths,” Butcher said.

Shelton’s dream nearly turned into a nightmare, however, as Liberty finally got on the board against Hillsdale starting pitcher Jones, who looked a little shaky during the Knights’ 4-1 win over San Mateo for the Central Coast Section Division II title last Saturday. But she was in charge against Liberty Thursday. She had given up just two hits through the first five innings and was never in any real danger.

Until the top of the sixth, that is, when the Hillsdale defense failed to make a couple of plays, enabling the Hawks to tie the game. With one out, Leilah Uriarte singled and stole second. The throw from the catcher got past both the Hillsdale shortstop and second baseman, and Uriarte scampered home for the Hawks’ first run of the game.

Carly Jimenez followed and reached on an error, stole second and came home on Trinity Cervantes’ booming RBI double to the fence in deep left field to drive in the game-tying run.

But Jones didn’t let it faze her. She got a strikeout to the end inning and allowed only one more baserunner over the final two innings to notch the win, striking out nine along the way.

“I think [Jones] felt a little more comfortable (compared to Saturday),” Butcher said. “She attacked batters.”

Up next for Hillsdale is a matchup with No. 2 Cardinal Newman in the Nor Cal Division III championship game at 4 p.m. Saturday in San Mateo. Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (24-6) scored a run in the bottom of the sixth to beat No. 6 Pleasant Valley-Chico, 1-0.

“That was a tough team we battled,” Butcher said of Liberty. “But [we] never give up.”