Notre Dame-Belmont tops Mercy in 4-3 battle to claim WBAL Foothill softball title

Couto finally got her Buster hug in Tuesday’s 4-3 win over Mercy-Burlingame, clinching the West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division championship for NDB. After right fielder Dani Demera chased down a fly ball for the final out of the game, Couto ran out to the circle and hoisted her freshman pitcher in the air to set off a celebration in the middle of NDB’s home diamond. It is the program’s first league title since 2018.

“It was so great,” Couto said. “I’ve never been able to just run up and hug my pitcher. ... It felt like the World Series, a championship game, it just felt like that. It was a great win, and it was so exciting.”

Couto is not your average catcher, especially in the speed department. The junior is NDB’s leadoff hitter and a proven speedster, leading the team in stolen bases. But it was her speed from second base to home that gave the Tigers the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning of their biggest win of the year.

NDB (6-0 WBAL Football, 15-1 overall) had already come from behind, tying it one Couto’s two-run single off Mercy pitcher Jazlyn Villavicencio. Couto craftily took second base on the play when Mercy threw the ball home. And the extra 60 feet paid off when Malaina Alifano stepped to the plate and promptly hit a smash to the right side of the infield.

Mercy second baseman Sophia Alterio ranged to her left and went into a slide to knock the ball down, but Alifano hit it so hard the ball deflected off Alterio’s glove and into shallow right field. The ball didn’t get too far away from her. In fact, she was able to gather it and throw out Alifano at first. But with NDB head coach Kelly McDonald waving Couto home, the speedy junior made the turn without hesitation and flew to the plate with a dusty slide for the go-ahead run.

“Once I saw it deflect off her glove, it was kind of rolling into no-man’s land, and Alexa’s speed is just incredible,” McDonald said. “I don’t have any doubt in my mind. She is fast as hell.”

But Couto ran by McDonald in such a flash, she never even noticed her coach waving her home.

“I just knew anything hit, I’m scoring,” Couto said. “That’s just my mentality. I want to win. So, I didn’t even see her, I just went.”

The sixth-inning comeback rewarded Lui for a dominant showing in the circle. The freshman right-hander got touched for a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth, but her first time through the Crusaders’ batting order, she was virtually unhittable, striking out seven of the first nine batters she faced.

Lui locked up with Villavicencio for one heck of a pitching duel, but the freshman ultimately bettered her sophomore counterpart. Lui allowed six hits while striking out 11.

“She’s a phenomenal pitcher,” Couto said. “To come in as a freshman and dominate a team like Mercy, that was huge. I’m so proud of her.”

The Tigers didn’t know what they had in Lui when the freshman arrived on campus to start the year. But her full arsenal of pitches made a quick impression.

“She just has every pitch, she utilizes every pitch,” McDonald said. “She is like a stone-cold killer, no emotion, and just does not fear those moments.”

Villavicencio showed up to spar, though, and spar she did. Mercy’s sophomore pitcher totaled seven strikeouts in the game, and traded zeroes with Lui through the first three innings. Then Mercy drew first blood in the fourth when Alterio drove home Ariana Montiel with a two-out single.

NDB answered back in the bottom of the fourth. Demera opened the frame with a leadoff double and the Tigers went on to load the bases. No. 8 hitter Ava Chung then tied the game with a bloop single to right to plate Demera.

Mercy fired right back in the fifth. With one on and two out, leadoff batter Giselle Ortega battled to a full count before muscling a bloop since into center field. Then after an intentional walk to Montiel load the bases, Mercy’s No. 3 hitter Jaimee Fabula belted a loud two-run double up the right-center gap.

“That was great,” Ortega said. “It’s a great feeling having full confidence in your hitter to score you in, and rounding the bases was great. Knowing that’s an easy two runs that got us up on the board.”

But NDB would not be denied. In the bottom of the sixth, the bottom of the order set the table. No. 7 batter Katie Johnson led off the inning with a walk and Chung followed with an infield single. No. 9 batter Izzy Yang then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt on the first pitch she saw, putting two runners in scoring position for the top of the order for Couto to tie it with her bat and win it with her legs.

With the win, NDB clinches at least a share of the WBAL Foothill title but need win just one of its remaining two games with Notre Dame-San Jose and Castilleja — the two teams entered play Tuesday with one league win between them — to clinch the title outright.

Mercy (4-2, 13-5) maintains outright control of second place in the Foothill standings. The Crusaders are all but assured of a Central Coast Section playoff bid, according to Mercy head coach Mike Davis.

“I think knowing this, we want to grind more because this wasn’t an easy loss for us,” Ortega said. “This one was a hard one. So, I think this is going to make us put more work in and be ready for them next time, and even harder teams.”