Salpointe (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

 

“No one better!”

You hear that over-used line coming down from the stands several times a night. It’s the softball equivalent to, “It’s in the hole!” in golf or, “And one!” in basketball. Well, everyone can’t be “better,” drives rarely, if ever, find the “hole,” and you have to actually be fouled to be rewarded with a free throw. But, in this case, there was no one better.

Yannira Acuña had already scored the walk-off run to lead Salpointe past Tucson in the semifinal round earlier in the day and she was already batting 3-for-3 with two doubles against Sabino in the championship of the Badger Invitational held Saturday night at Cherry Field.

Yannira Acuna 4-4 walk-off single @schssoftball_ wins the Badger Classic over @sabino_softball 3-2 pic.twitter.com/ZbTyD1Xl2P

— Andy Morales (@AndyMorales8) March 18, 2018

The score was knotted at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh. Sabino had a 2-1 lead an inning earlier and, you guessed it, it was Acuña’s run off of an RBI from Erika Marquez that tied things up to begin with. So, here she was once more. There was one out, Alyssa Ortiz was standing at third, Elise Muñoz was at second and Malaea Rocha was at first.

Ortiz was pinch-running for freshman sensation Kim McDaniels. McDaniels gave the Lancers a brief 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a moon shot and she led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. Muñoz followed with a single one out later and Rocha reached on an infield hit to set things up.

Acuña stepped up to the plate and pulled a pitch through the right side to give Salpointe a 3-2 walk-off win over Sabino.  The speedy lefty with power, bound for ASU, is nothing new to those who have followed her career since before her days on Sunnyside’s Little League World Series team five years ago. Acuña, herself, drew upon on a younger version of herself for inspiration.

“It feels good to lead my team as a senior now,” Acuña said. “I was thinking about how I was a freshman, trying to do anything I could to fit in and help my team, and that’s what I’m doing now.”

The win pushed Salpointe to 17-2 on the year and the loss dropped Sabino to 10-8. A loss in the championship of the Badger Invitational is something the Sabercats accepted (though not gladly) because it came after a difficult start to a promising season that followed a semifinal finish in the 2017 3A state playoffs.

“We’ve had an up and down year so far,” explained senior Gabby Ramirez. “We had problems producing and this tournament is a turn around for us. I’m proud of all my girls for what we were able to do here.”

A couple of losses on Thursday in pool play were followed by a couple of big wins on Friday, good enough to move the Sabercats into the championship bracket as a six seed on Saturday – the last team in.

“No one gave us a chance,” Ramirez added. “We were a little 3A team beating 6A, 5A and 4A teams.”

Sabino took a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth after Sydney Gray singled with one out and Ramirez doubled her in one later. Cassandra Castaneda followed with an RBI single to score Ramirez.

Danielle Kirchhofer went the distance for Sabino and she picked up six strikeouts in the loss. Three of those strikeouts came in the bottom of the fourth after giving up a leadoff double to Acuña.

Aleena Alexander got the start for the Lancers and Alyssa Aguilar took over in the fifth. Aguilar finished with six strikeouts in the win.

The Sabercats are 1-1 in the 3A South Region but that loss, and even the win, came before the team rediscovered their identity. This will be tested with five region games in a 10-day span.

Salpointe, like Sabino, is coming off a successful year that included a 4A semifinal finish. One loss suffered this year came against a team from El Paso and the other at the hands of 5A power Ironwood Ridge.

The Lancers still have two more difficult games ahead before region play begins on Friday. The team will visit 5A state champion Cienega on Tuesday, March 20 and 3A state champion Empire the next night.

Sabino (AZPreps365.com)