SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Better days are likely ahead for San Juan Hills’ softball team, but Wednesday is one the youthful Stallions will have to classify as a learning experience.
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San Juan Hills had more hits and fewer errors, but were on the wrong side of the scoreboard in a 4-3 loss in eight innings to North Torrance in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 quarterfinals.
The playoff journey for fourth-seeded San Juan Hills (21-7-2) ended as deep as it has ever gone in the playoffs. North (23-9), trying to win its fourth section title, will play its semifinal Saturday at Great Oak of Temecula, a 10-5 winner over Edison on Wednesday.
San Juan Hills had the winning run at third base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but lined into a double play with the bases loaded.
The Stallions missed a scoring chance in the first inning when a runner was thrown out at home plate when she didn’t slide.
They had runners on base in six of the eight innings, but they could never get the key hit or play that could have sent them to the semifinals.
“We’re a young team and those are uncharacteristic mistakes,” San Juan Hills coach Jeremey Wooten said. “We know we gave a couple of opportunities to the other team, and they’re a good team. You give a good team extra outs, opportunities, you’re just tempting fate.
“Our mistakes on the base paths is what’s going to live with me for a little bit.”
San Juan Hills had RBIs in the second and third inning by freshman Emmylou Ferrell and senior Leeloo Narvaez.
But it was the seventh inning that was so critical. Charlotte Duran doubled to open the seventh, and Kylie Vaughn’s line drive RBI single to left field put her at third base on a fielding error as the ball reached the fence.
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With the score tied at 3-3, North intentionally walked the next two batters to face cleanup hitter Brynn Mesnick. On a three-ball, one-strike pitch, Mesnick hit a soft liner to second base that became a rally-ending double play when the runner at second was caught off base.
“That gives you a momentum boost as you go to bat,” North coach Samantha Alvillar said. “When you put the pressure on and you’re in a high-intensity situation, and you come out unscathed, you’re thinking, ‘We have the angels behind us.’”
Those angels led to the winning run being scored in the top of the eighth inning. Rylee Joyce walked, took second on a passed ball and two outs later scored on Leslie Anne Torres’ single to left field.
San Juan Hills went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth, only the second time in the game the Stallions were retired in order by winning pitcher Kloie Iboy.
Iboy allowed three earned runs on nine hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
Kumpel, one of five freshman starters for the Stallion, gave up six hits, including a solo home run to Isis Jones in the sixth inning that gave North a 3-2 lead. She struck out two, walked two, and hit Alvillar three times.
She was emotional afterward but admitted she “had a blast with this team.”
“We’re a very young team, but we have so much potential,” Kumpel said. “I think we could have won the whole thing if we had played our best. And sometimes it happens where we don’t pull through. That’s part of the game. It’s going to be a good next three years.”
San Juan Hills’ starting lineup included two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore.
“It’s a game of inches, and when you’re playing a good team in a big environment, that can be the difference,” Wooten said. “We had our chances, had our opportunities. But I love that our team battles. Many times this year we had to come back in the last inning, and we have. We have this thing where we just don’t back down until this last pitch is made.”
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That last pitch was made Wednesday, and it ended the Stallions’ season.