San Jose’s Almaden Little League advances to LL Softball World Series

Quartz Hill, led by ace left-hander Brooke Sandberg-Zygo, advanced to the championship game through the winners’ bracket, including an 11-4 win, Sunday, July 23, over Almaden. But with the single championship-game format, Almaden rallied through the elimination bracket with wins over Utah, Nevada and Arizona to earn a rematch with Quartz Hill for the title.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” Almaden head coach John Drake said to ESPN following Friday’s win. “Losing that first game, they got down, but we never gave up. That’s been our season all year, and on the backs of our pitchers, it’s been crazy ... but that’s been our team. We don’t give up.”

Almaden’s pitching trio of Maya Parada, Auzerais Munoz and Jayda Drake teamed to hold Quartz Hill to four hits.

Jayda Drake worked the final two innings to earn the save. The hard-throwing right-hander battled through a dicey sixth inning, closing it out with Quartz Hill runners on second and third to record the game-ending strikeout.

Parada, the starter, worked 3 1/3 innings of shutout ball, with Munoz emerging in the fourth.

The left-handed Munoz had previously thrown just 10 pitches in the tournament but entered with one on and one out to retire the side. Almaden jumped ahead 1-0 in the top of the fourth, and Munoz preserved the lead thanks to a clutch defensive play in right field by Aanya Kapoor. After a hard grounder to second off the bat of Sandberg-Zygo for the second out, Quartz Hill loaded the bases before Alina Elias socked a liner toward the gap in right-center, but Kapoor ran it down for the third out.

“They’ve faced us before, and they’ve faced that same Parada-Drake tandem,” John Drake said. “So, I was thinking, the top of the order’s coming around, they haven’t seen this pitcher. I don’t want them to see Parada again a second time around, so let’s throw something different at them. Our third pitcher, Auzerais, she does great. She has a lot of off-speed … so I was hoping we could throw them a little curveball there.”

Almaden scored the game’s first run in the top of the fourth, breaking through without getting the ball out of the infield. Kira Gutierrez led off the inning by beating out a soft grounder to short for an infield single. Brooklyn Scott followed by beating out a bunt, with Gutierrez advancing to third when the throw was mishandled at first. It proved to be a big base, as Gutierrez scored on the next pitch with Danika Garcia grounding out to second base, giving Almaden a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the sixth, Almaden manufactured a critical insurance run with an RBI single from Scott. Munoz led off with a cue shot to third base, with a throwing error allowing her to reach first. Jayda Drake followed with a one-out single to right. Then Scott lined a single to right, with Drake getting thrown out attempting to go from first to third while Munoz scored to give Almaden a 2-0 lead.

The run loomed large as Quartz Hill threatened in its final at-bat.

Bailey Dell opened the bottom of the sixth with an infield single on a blooper in no man’s land between second and short. Dell moved to second on a wild pitch, then a grounder to shortstop off the bat of Sandberg-Zygo nearly spelled disaster as a hesitant decision saw the throw go to third base in an attempt to get the lead runner. The throw was wide of the mark, allowing Dell to score and Sandberg-Zygo to advance to second.

Jayda Drake delivered the championship, though, working above the strike zone to coax a swinging third strike to end it.

“It’s everything, it’s everything,” John Drake said of his daughter closing it out for the West Region title. “Just seeing her out there and be in that moment, there’s not a lot of people who are going to be in that moment. So, just to see her out there, it’s special.”

The Little League Softball World Series is held Aug. 6-13. The 12-team field includes eight from the United States and four international teams.