Unsung hero shines in St. Francis’ Nor Cal softball championship win

The 2022 St. Francis softball team has been Northern California’s premier softball program in recent years. Stacked with talent, the team posted an undefeated 26-0 record in 2021 and extended a 35-game winning streak, over three seasons, into the first month of 2022. With the debut of the Nor Cal tournament on their radar, however, the reigning Central Coast Section Open Division champion Lancers had one goal in mind throughout the regular season.

“It was just more CCS,” St. Francis sophomore Shannon Keighran said. “We just wanted to be back-to-back CCS champs.”

That they were. In the midst of posting a 31-2 overall record, the Lancers won the March 28 CCS championship game 6-5 over Mitty in an extra-inning walk-off thriller. St. Francis proceeded to outscore its three Nor Cal opponents — St. Francis-Sacramento, Sheldon and Clovis — by a cumulative score of 18-2.

The Lancers’ 6-0 championship victory over Clovis was more contentious than the final score might indicate though. Behind starting pitcher Kate Munnerlyn, St. Francis took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning. That’s when Milante — a San Bruno native who now resides in San Mateo — stepped it up with the glove, and with the bat.

Not only did Milante apply a clutch tag on a play at the plate in the top of the fourth inning to protect the Lancers’ one-run lead, the senior then added to the lead in the bottom of the inning, blasting her second home run of the season.

“I’ve been struggling at the plate a little bit, but I knew that game, knowing it was the championship and knowing it was my last high school game, I had a lot of confidence from my coaches and my teammates … and my family and friends too,” Milante said. “Just running around the bases, I just had the biggest smile on my face, I could just feel it.”

Milante had a similar smile at the beginning of the season when she landed the starting catcher job, a scenario that seemed unlikely as her fellow senior, Sydney Stewart, had served as the team’s catcher in 2021. Stewart is committed to the NCAA Division I program at University of Washington as a catcher.

Stewart, however, converted to first base for her senior high school season, opening the door for Milante. While having a modest year at the plate for a Lancers lineup that batted .434 as a team — Milante recorded a .234 average — she still caught 28 games this season.

And when Keighran — a Burlingame native — entered the Nor Cal championship game in relief to face a tough spot with runners on second and third and no outs, Milante proved to be in the right place at the right time behind home plate.

“She’s always ready to come in,” Milante said of Keighran, who pitched out of the jam without letting a ball out of the infield. “She’s always there to support her pitchers, especially if she’s not starting. … All of our pitchers really have reach others backs because they’re able to come in and calm a game down and do what they’re able to do.”

After striking out the first batter she faced, Keighran induced a hard chopper to the left side of the infield. With the infield drawn in, the ball bounced over the glove of third baseman Chloe Cummings, but senior shortstop Jessica Oakland ranged to her backhand to nab it and made a strong, accurate throw to the plate, allowing Milante to drop the glove for the second out of the inning on a bang-bang play.

“It was a really good play by Jess,” Milante said. “It was just awesome. It was a perfect throw. Everything was just perfect. Jess knew where to go with the ball. It was just awesome.”

And the excitement was immediately felt throughout the Lancers’ ranks at Legacy Field.

“We were so fired up,” Keighran said. “Our whole infield and outfield was screaming.”

Then in the bottom of the fourth, Milante cashed in with an unlikely power show. The senior stepped to the plate with just three home runs in her varsity career and hadn’t hit one since March 15 when she knocked one out of Carlmont in the second game of the season.

But Milante worked a hitter’s count and jumped on an inside fastball, sending it sailing over the fence in left-center.

“She’s been hitting the ball good but nothing crazy,” Keighran said. “So, when she hit it, we were just so happy for her. It was clutch hitting and just good timing.”

After St. Francis rallied for four more runs in the fifth — including RBI doubles from San Carlos native Lexi O’Gorman and Redwood City native Brooke Deppiesse — the Lancers’ three-headed pitching monster did the rest. After Munnerlyn and Keighran each recorded three scoreless innings, Cummings entered for the seventh.

And with a Clovis runner on second and one out, the game ended in style, with a soft line drive to Deppiesse at second base, who caught it and flipped behind the runner to Oakland at the bag for the championship double play.

A spirited dog pile ensued.

“The (CCS championship) Mitty game was so crazy and intense that we walked it off and we had a dog pile, and it was awesome,” Milante said. “But after that double play in the Clovis game, it was just so cool to end it like that.”