Notre Dame-Belmont champions of Central Coast Section Division IV softball

“Honestly, I didn’t even think about it,” NDB senior third baseman Skylar Loo said. “Maybe the weeks before, I was like: ‘Oh, shoot! Are we going to be late to graduation?’ But during this game, I didn’t even care. I just want to win. And then if I get to graduation, I get to graduation.”

Loo’s laser focus allowed her to enjoy the postgame celebration more than anyone, throwing her mitt high into the air after right fielder Claire Kimball gloved a fly ball for the game’s final out. It was also a punctuation on a fine performance for NDB’s No. 2 hitter, who went 3 for 3 with two doubles and two RBIs, including the biggest hit of the day by delivering a two-run single to break a scoreless tie in the fifth.

“She’s been clutch all season, especially the last month and a half of the season,” NDB head coach Nick Dykes said. “She’s just been seeing the ball really well. ... Every time she gets in and hitting the ball hard.”

The Tigers’ late inning dramatics were made possible by a fine outing from junior starting pitcher Caroline Zerella, who fired a three-hit shutout while pitching stubbornly to contact all afternoon.

“Caroline, I think she’s a really good pitcher,” NDB sophomore catcher Eliana Crespin said. “Mentally she keeps herself together. She’s gone through all our CCS games strong. She doesn’t give up. She fights through these hits, and she knows that we have her back, but I think that she helps us get through this by really pitching phenomenally by making that contact.”

The left-hander relied plenty on her outfield of Kimball, Allie Dorn and Hailey Truong all season, and certainly continued the trend into Saturday in recording just two strikeouts and one groundout, while totaling 17 fly outs on the day.

Kimball set the tone in the first inning, getting the Tigers back into the dugout after chasing down a deep fly ball to right with an all-out running catch. Truong made a similar catch to start the second, tracking a deep fly ball a step shy of the warning track.

Dorn then capped the third with a superb running catch in left to rob Lily Jensen of extra bases, as Zerella punctuated a stretch of setting down the first nine batters she faced.

“One of the things we count on with Caroline is to get us a lot of balls in the air,” Dykes said. “We know what our pitcher’s strong points are, she’s going to keep people off balance, she’s got really good spin. We expect a lot of balls in the air.”

Truong made two critical catches in the fourth after Branham’s Maddey Steiner led off the frame with a double, and Autumn Burns singled to put runners at the corners with no outs. But Zerella weathered the storm, inducing a popup into short left field for shortstop Juliette Ramirez to track down. Then Truong gloved a shallow fly ball for the second out, and stood her ground on a line-drive smash to center off the bat of Ellie Weisman for the final out of the inning, stranding two Branham runners in scoring position.

“[Zerella’s] always that challenging,” Crespin said. “She’ll put it there, so you have to be ready.”

The dam finally broke in the fifth when the Tigers sent eight batters to the plate amid a four-run outburst. Stella Hird sparked the rally innocently enough, swatting a one-out single through the middle of the infield. Then No. 9 batter Crespin put up a battle, fouling off three tough two-strike pitches to earn a nine-pitch walk.

“I take [batting 9th] pretty seriously because in my mind, obviously I think it’s very overlooked,” Crespin said. “And I think that people think it’s a bad spot or it means you don’t hit good. ... But I know that I take it seriously because it makes a big impact on my team.”

Truong then reached on an infield error to load the bases, setting the stage for Loo to rope a two-run single to left with her third knock of the day to get NDB on the board.

“Just knowing her curveball was coming in, and that it was going to tail off at the end,” Loo said. “So, I think I stood a little bit higher up in the box than most people so I could beat it before it tails off.”

The Tigers didn’t stop there, as Ramirez produced a sacrifice fly to drive home Truong. Then NDB went to the bench to pinch hit for the cleanup hitter, and Emma Hogan made it look like a genius move as she delivered a line-drive single to right to bring home Loo with an aggressive slide across the plate, giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead, and carving a raspberry out of the back of her softball pants in the process.

“It hurt a lot,” Loo said. “It was totally worth it, of course.”

NDB added another insurance run in the sixth, with Molly Hipps slamming a one-0ut double into the right-center gap, and Crespin cashing in was a two-out RBI double to make it 5-0.

Zerella then retired the side in order in the seventh to set off the celebration. The championship marks NDB’s fourth all-time.

Dykes said NDB is opting in to the CIF Northern California regional tournament, opening Tuesday. The status of the Tigers’ three seniors is uncertain.

“We’ll find out,” Dykes said. “Hopefully they’re still in town next week. We’ll find out on Monday.”