Buchanan turns back Stockdale for title, 5-3
| Thursday, May 28 2009 11:15 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Jun 10 2009 05:11 PM
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Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale High pitcher Justine Vela, center, gets a hug from head coach Amanda Hockett, left, after a tough loss to Buchanan High, Thursday, in Bakersfield during the Division I softball championship game. Final score was 5-3.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's softball coach Amanda Hockett, right, walks back to her team as the Buchanan team celebrates their 5-3 victory over Stockdale Thursday.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale High pitcher Justine Vela, center, gets a hug from head coach Amanda Hockett, left, after a tough loss to Buchanan High, Thursday, in Bakersfield during the Division I softball championship game. Final score was 5-3.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Ilyssa Espiritu beats Buchanan's Dom Selby to the bag at second during game action Thursday at Stockdale during the Division I softball championship game.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's softball coach Amanda Hockett, right, walks back to her team as the Buchanan team celebrates their 5-3 victory over Stockdale Thursday.
Casey Christie / The Californian Buchanan celebrates after a big win Thursday against Stockdale High in Bakersfield 5-3. Photo by Casey Christie
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale High pitcher Justine Vela, center, gets a hug from head coach Amanda Hockett, left, after a tough loss to Buchanan High, Thursday, in Bakersfield during the Division I softball championship game. Final score was 5-3.
Casey Christie / The Californian Buchanan High softball players celebrate their 5-3 win over Bakersfield's Stockdale High School Thursday in Bakersfield during the Division I softball championship game.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Ilyssa Espiritu beats Buchanan's Dom Selby to the bag at second during game action Thursday at Stockdale during the Division I softball championship game.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Colleen Reed slides safely into second past Buchanan's Bailey O'Dell, during Thursday's big game at Stockdale.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's softball coach Amanda Hockett, right, walks back to her team as the Buchanan team celebrates their 5-3 victory over Stockdale Thursday.
Casey Christie / The Californian Buchanan celebrates after defeating Stockdale in Bakersfield Thursday. Photo by Casey Christie/The Bakersfield Californian
Casey Christie / The Californian Buchanan celebrates after a big win Thursday against Stockdale High in Bakersfield 5-3. Photo by Casey Christie
For a fleeting minute Thursday, it appeared that Stockdale's softball team still had some magic left.
Then Clovis-Buchanan closed that door, too, finishing off the Mustangs 5-3 for the Division I Central Section championship and forcing upstart Stockdale to settle for second place.
"I told my girls, 'Why are you crying?'" Stockdale coach Amanda Hockett said. "'Nobody expected us to be here. We gave it 100 percent, we ended with a bang. In my opinion, we didn't win, but we went out on top.'"
There were three reasons fourth-seeded Buchanan did win.
First was the Bears' bats. Stockdale's sensational sophomore pitcher, Justine Vela, had already no-hit Clovis West in the quarterfinals and shut out No. 3 seed Fresno-Central -- the champion of Buchanan's league -- on four hits in the semifinals.
But Buchanan (26-7-1) teed off. After Vela fought through three scoreless innings, the Bears broke through on Taylor Wright's RBI double to the wall in left-center field that scored a second run when Ilyssa Espiritu's throw sailed to the backstop. The Bears got three more for a 5-0 lead in the fifth, the big blow a two-run double, again to left-center, from Michelle Murphy.
"They hit the snot out of the ball," Stockdale junior Megan Reed said. "We got a lot of action in the outfield, and we're not used to that with Justine Vela pitching."
In all, Buchanan had 10 hits and struck out just three times against a pitcher who had 24 Ks in her first two playoff games.
"Earlier I told these girls they're the best-hitting team I've ever seen," Buchanan coach Dean Gregory said. "And today they showed it. That's a quality pitcher they hit."
The second reason Buchanan won was that No. 2 Stockdale (21-8-1) didn't exactly help its own cause. The Mustangs, who had done about everything right during an 11-game winning streak that got them to this point, committed five errors in the field, had a runner picked off of first base and another doubled off on a routine fly ball.
"We made a few mistakes -- things we were doing earlyl in the season, and we had cut that off," Hockett said. "We just didn't have it today. We had heart, but we didn't have our 'A' game."
And finally, Buchanan won because it withstood a funhouse ending. The Bears thought they had clinched a 5-0 victory when, with two outs and two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh, Stockdale's Lauren Kotz swung and missed at the third strike.
Buchanan catcher Rushael Lawley tossed the ball into the air and ran to the pitcher's circle, where the Bears started racously celebrating their apparent title.
But, the home-plate umpire ruled, the ball had hit the dirt before reaching Lawley's glove, so when she dropped it, Kotz and the runners were free to advance. The two on base came around to score, and Kotz made it to third before Buchanan noticed what was happening.
"They're just running and running and running," Stockdale junior Megan Reed said. "Hockett's arm almost came out of her socket (waving them around)."
Colleen Reed singled home Kotz -- the sophomore's third hit -- to make it 5-3, but the Bears finally ended it when Espiritu lined out to shortstop Bailey O'Dell.
"We never gave up," Megan Reed said. "We're not that team. We've come back before, and I thought we could do it again. I was feeling it."
But the Mustang magic wasn't quite that powerful. Still, the young team that wasn't even supposed to win its own league, much less get this far, figures there's always next year.
"You don't see me crying," Megan Reed said. "I can't believe we're here, and I'm so excited for next year. We're building. Imagine what we can do next year."
Central Section softball championship
Division I
No. 4 Clovis-Buchanan 5, No. 2 Stockdale 3
W--Rendon (10-3). L--Vela (19-5). 2B--Buch (Wright, Murphy).
Notes: Colleen Reed was 3-for-3 with Stockdale's only RBI. Amani Proctor and Bailey O'Dell had two hits each for Buchanan, and Natalie Rendon allowed no earned runs in a six-hitter, striking out four.
Other championship scores
Div. II -- No. 1 Tulare Western 3, No. 2 Visalia-Golden West 2
Div. III -- No. 4 Hanford West 2, No. 6 Hanford 0
Div. IV -- No. 4 Kerman 9, No. 3 Kingsburg 8
Div. V -- No. 10 Madera Ranchos-Liberty 5, No. 1 Riverdale 3
