Mercy rules: Mercy Burlingame Crusaders clinch West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division softball title outright

Team leader Katie Koenig, who belted her fifth and sixth home runs of the season Thursday in Mercy’s 13-2 mercy-rule win over Castilleja, sped around the basepaths for two inside-the-parkers, both on plays that mere mortals would have settled for triples. But, with her teammates rooting her on from the third-base dugout, Koenig felt obliged to keep on running.

“I just hear my teammates cheering for me and they know I can beat it out, so I just trust them, really,” Koenig said. “It makes me get really pumped up when I’m running. So, I always just go for it if it’s there.”

Koenig now leads the West Bay Athletic League with six home runs and is tied for sixth in the Central Coast Section. The shortstop/pitcher is at the forefront of the sophomore renaissance for the Crusaders (8-1 WBAL Foothill, 8-2 overall), but her fellow sophomore Jaimee Fabula also went deep for a two-run homer in the sixth inning. Fabula’s shot capped a walk-off victory, giving Mercy a 10-run lead in the bottom of the sixth to invoke the mercy rule.

“They’ve all been inside the park,” Mercy head coach Michael Davis said of his team’s 14 homers this season. “I don’t think there’s a fence out here. … We’ve squeezed out over 11 or 12 home runs just by the girls taking a chance and risking it at the end and pulling it off.”

Thursday’s win locks up the WBAL Foothill Division title outright for Mercy.

Amid Mercy’s Senior Day — honoring the teams three seniors, Bella Alterio, Marisa Farrugia and Lily Perkocha — freshman pitcher Jazlyn Villavicencio also shined, whirling a complete game to improve her untarnished record to 5-0. The right-hander took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and settled for a four-hitter while striking out nine.

Villavicencio had a chance to preserve her no-hitter in the fifth inning when Castilleja’s Yael Goldnasser sent a line drive right back through the middle. Villavicencio’s reflexes were sharp as she managed to get a glove on it but could only deflect it to the right side of the infield for the Gators’ first hit of the game.

“To be honest, I wasn’t aware,” Villavicencio said of vying for a no-hitter. “I don’t really think about it. That’s kind of what I do, I don’t really want to think about it. I don’t think, I just pitch and go out there and do my thing.”

By that time, though, Mercy had built such a big lead that all Castilleja (2-6, 3-8) could do was stave off the mercy-rule outcome for one inning. Later in the fifth, with the Crusaders leading 11-1, Villavicencio was one strike away from ending it. But with the bases loaded, two outs, and Sophie Lenz facing a two-strike count, the Castilleja senior lined an RBI single to right field to make it 11-2.

The silver lining was the additional inning allowed Mercy to get all its players into the game, as sophomore Shreyaa Mehta and freshman Tawny Elchuck each took pinch hit at-bats in the bottom of the fifth. Elchuck drew the honor of pinch hitting for Koenig, who had already homered twice.

Koenig got Mercy on the scoreboard in the first with her first blast of the day, a towering shot over the left fielder’s head that saw her run like the wind to score standing up several steps ahead of Castilleja’s relay throw. Later in the inning Bella Alterio singled, and soon scored on a double off the bat of her sister, freshman Sophia Alterio. Sophia Alterio later scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.

“It’s funny because I bat them back-to-back to each other,” Davis said. “They actually compete. But they’ve been waiting all this whole time to play on the same team together.”

Mercy scored four more in the second, highlighted by a two-run single by Mia Gonzalez. Two more runs scored on a single by Sophia Alterio. Each of the Alterio sisters finished with three hits on the day.

Bella Alterio proved valuable behind the plate as well. The fourth-year varsity catcher has come a long way, according to Davis, who himself is an honorary “senior.” The fourth-year head coach took over the Mercy softball program when Bella Alterio and the team’s other two seniors were freshmen.

“She’s an impact player,” Davis said. “Behind the plate she’s been solid. She’s grown in the last four years to where now … no one’s even running on her. But she didn’t start out that way, she just put in the work.”

In the top of the third, Sophia Alterio gave her older sister a run for her money in the defense department. With the younger Alterio shading toward the middle of the diamond, Casti sophomore Sophia Vinson hit a slow roller into the hole between first and second. Alterio ranged over and laid out for a diving nab, rolled into a seated position and threw to first just in time to get the out at first.

In the fourth, Mercy added to its lead. Ariana Montiel led off with a triple to right. Then Koenig belted her second homer of the day, a line shot down the right-field line that saw her hustle all the way around for the score. Pinch-hitter Riley Lask later singled home Bella Alterio.

The game is the last regular-season home game for the Crusaders, but they are hoping for a command performance in the postseason as a possible hosting draw in the Central Coast Section playoffs. Still, there was plenty of emotion, and a steady stream of tears, around the Mercy postgame celebration honoring the team’s seniors on Senior Day.

“They’re such good players and … role models to each other, so I’m going to miss them,” Davis said. “They were here when I first started out.”