Notre Dame-Belmont’s dream run still alive

The No. 4-seeded Tigers took advantage of a shaky start by the fifth-seeded Vikings and continued to add on throughout the game in posting an 8-1 victory to advance to the CCS semifinals.

“The girls came out ready [Saturday],” said Notre Dame coach Tara Van Meter, who said her biggest concern was how strong her team would be mentally.

“Once I saw how strong they came out, I knew we’d have a good game,” Van Meter said.

Notre Dame-Belmont (19-12) advances to the semifinals with the victory and will face top-seeded Notre Dame-Salinas at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at San Jose’s P.A.L. Stadium. The Tigers have already beaten the CCS power earlier this season, 9-5 in non-league game March 14th.

The Tigers’ strong start Saturday was a four-run bottom of the first inning that all but doomed the Vikings’ chances. Mills (18-13) committed a pair of errors on two of the first three Tigers’ batters of the game and that opened the door to four unearned runs. Dani Kazakoff, who finished the game 3 for 4 with three runs scored, led off the bottom of the first with a walk. Chloe Stogner followed with a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away at first base. Another sacrifice bunt, this time by Marina Sylvestri, was also mishandled at first, enabling Kazakoff to score. Sofia Magnani followed with an RBI groundout and Lindsey Mifsud poked an RBI single to right. Olivia Geronimo hit a ground-rule double and Bianca Magnani drove in the fourth run of the inning on a groundout.

“They’re good hitters,” said Mills coach Dana Ynostroza. “They’re a higher quality team (than we have faced this season).

“But if we can’t get an out at first on a bunt, we don’t deserve to win.”

The Tigers added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, Kazakoff reached on an infield hit and Stogner singled to left. Sylvestri walked to load the bases. Sofia Magnani drove in Kazakoff with a grounduout. Mifsud followed with a walk. On ball four, the pitch sailed to the backstop, allowing Stogner to score from third.

In the fourth, Kazakoff singled to lead off the inning and later scored on a Sofia Magnani single to left. The Tigers rounded out the scoring in the bottom of the fifth, due in large part to two more Mills errors. Bianca Magnani reached second on an error,went to third on a wild pitch and scored on the Vikings’ fourth error of the game.

That was more than enough offense for Mifsud, who allowed one run on two hits in five innings of work from the circle. Sofia Magnani pitched the final two innings, retiring all six batters she faced.

Mifsud made only one mistake during her outing and it sent a buzz through the crowd. Mills catcher Gabriella Zucchiatti, who was named the Peninsula Athletic League’s Ocean Division Player of the Year, led off the top of the second with a tape-measure shot over the temporary fence in center field to account for Mills’ lone run of the game.

Van Meter said she changed her approach to Zucchiatti after that.

“After that first one, I told [Mifsud], ‘Give her nothing good to hit,’” Van Meter said.

Mills had only one other hit in the game, a one-out single from Caitlin Ung in the top of the fifth inning.

“We scored one run on [two hits]. That’s why we lost the game,” Ynostroza said. “We just didn’t pressure them on defense.”

Ung also made the play of the day defensively when she made a running catch in the left-center field gap to rob Geronimo of possible extra bases in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“My assistant coach, Rob Zucchiatti. … has worked tirelessly with the outfield,” Ynostroza said.

In other Division III action, No. 7 Half Moon Bay saw its season come to an end with an 8-3 loss to No. 2 Santa Catalina. Burlingame, the No. 9 seed, were ousted by Notre Dame-Salinas, 10-0.