Becoming partly cloudy and windy. High 63F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..
Tonight
Partly cloudy and windy this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 52F. WNW winds at 20 to 30 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.
Aliyah Scheller settled the issue loudly and early, blasting a majestic first-inning, three-run home run to lead San Mateo High to a 4-1 win Saturday over visiting Aragon in a Central Coast Section Division I softball game.
San Mateo (18-5) knocked fellow Peninsula Athletic League team Aragon out of the single-elimination CCS tournament. During league play, the two teams had split wins against one another. San Mateo advances to the semifinals and will play another PAL team, Hillsdale, Tuesday at Capuchino High School.
In their first at-bat, San Mateo’s Alice Han drew a walk and was followed by a single from Demi Alfonso. Scheller, a sophomore first baseman, then lofted the game-winning shot deep over the center field fence.
“I’ve been working on my batting with my sister Monae (a recent SMHS grad and former Bearcats power hitter),” said Aliyah Scheller. “She’s given me a lot of confidence and keeps pushing me to be the best that I can be. Sometimes you just need to believe you can do it.”
Aragon (17-11) didn’t go down quietly. Aragon actually out-hit San Mateo 10 hits to six. The Dons littered the bags with baserunners with Natalie Jia, Riley Wideman and Brigette Brodsky getting two hits each. Jia ended the scoring drought when she belted another over-the-fence home run. Wideman and Elizabeth Magness each doubled but never got any farther than second base.
Playing errorless defense behind steady pitching from Celia Hernandez, San Mateo managed to strand seven Aragon base runners. Catcher Destina Zhou threw out a baserunner at second base after a strikeout for a double play. A well executed throw from center fielder Jana Davies to Zhou, who blocked off the plate, led to the last out of the game.
San Mateo started the season slowly but has now won 10 of its last 11 games and last week captured its first-ever the PAL Bay Division championship.
“We’ve improved so much this season,” Scheller said. “Especially on defense. I think that is where we’ve made the greatest improvement. We trust each other now to make the plays.”
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