Nick Pecoraro
Sports Editor
It’s a long 150-mile bus ride from Sacramento City College up north to Feather River College in Quincy, California. Add an extra hour from Quincy to Truckee for an overnight hotel stay, and it makes for a really long trip.
The City College softball team, seeded 15th in the California Community College Athletic Association Northern California regional playoff bracket, made sure the drive home was a happy one.
City upset the second-seeded Golden Eagles in the NorCal bracket in a best-of-three series Friday and Saturday. The Panthers stole Game 1 Friday afternoon, 3-1, and survived the second of two games Saturday to advance to the NorCal super regionals beginning May 11.
“We did what I thought we could do,” said City head coach Tim Kiernan, whose team is now 25-18 and has won six of its last seven games.
Kiernan said during road trips, he posts what he calls “affirmations” on his players’ hotel room doors: personalized notes of encouragement directed toward each individual player.
When City’s No. 2 starting pitcher Marah Range received her note before taking the ball for the decisive Game 3 Saturday, she knew that Kiernan was calling upon her to be the softball version of a firefighter.
“I was thinking about that quote the whole time I was in the game,” said Range, who threw six scoreless innings before Feather River put a rally together in the bottom of the seventh.
The Panthers led 4-0 heading into the final frame. The Golden Eagles loaded the bases, and Kiernan decided to go with his ace, Danielle Reyes, to try and close the game out. Feather River scored two quick runs off the usually reliable Reyes, who had thrown complete games in the first two contests of the series.
Kiernan then made the move to re-enter Range into the pitcher’s circle to extinguish the fire.
The message on Range’s affirmation note rang true as the freshman from West Campus High School doused the flames, getting the final two outs with the potential game-winning run on base and helping the Panthers cling to a 4-3 victory.
Crisis averted.
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“That was the biggest game I’ve ever thrown in,” said Range. “The fact that we came out on top, it felt so good…My whole team’s support and my coaches’ support all just came together, and I just zoned in on the batter. I couldn’t even tell you what happened because I kind of blanked out. Once that last fly ball was caught, I felt like throwing up. It was crazy.”
City put the pressure on the Golden Eagles after Reyes went seven strong innings, giving up only one run on four hits with five strikeouts Friday afternoon. Mackenzie Duval, Elecia Vuittonet and Taylor Wolf each had an RBI in the second inning of Game 1, proving to be enough support for Reyes.
“If we had lost the first game, I feel like the dynamic would have had us way down, and we would have had to pick ourselves back up on Saturday,” said Range. “But the fact that we won, we went back to the hotel on a high. And we came back the next day actually believing that we could win it.”
Feather River forced a decisive Game 3 after shutting out the Panthers in the second game of the series, 2-0, Saturday afternoon.
“We kind of let our guard down a little bit,” said Kiernan. “I wish we could’ve done it a little cleaner… I don’t think we had any pressure coming in. I just wanted to come in and take care of business and leave, and we did that the first day.”
Elizabeth Caffero, who’s made adjustments all season long for the Panthers, got the offense going early in Game 3. The triple crown winner in the Big 8 Conference shifted from shortstop to everyday catcher toward the end of the season after both City’s regular backstops suffered injuries.
Caffero’s reputation of offensive prowess resulted in Feather River taking the bat out of her hands and walking her four times over the first two games in the series. Kiernan decided to shuffle his lineup and move Caffero from her normal third spot in the order to the leadoff position.
Caffero responded with a leadoff triple to start the game and scored the game’s first run, giving City and Range an early cushion. Caffero went 2-for-3 in the series-clinching game.
“We’ve got a few more wins than last year already,” said Kiernan. “We’re two wins away from making the state tournament.”
To reach the state tournament, the Panthers will have to summon another upset against the North Coast Conference Champion—and NorCal No. 1 overall seed—College of San Mateo (37-4). The best-of-three series with the Bulldogs begins Friday at San Mateo.
In the current CCCAA playoff format, teams are reseeded each round until the state championship bracket begins.
“It doesn’t matter where we get seeded,” said assistant coach Joe Spatafore. “When you play programs with winning traditions, you don’t want to see the (City College) pinstripes.”
For more info on SCC softball, visit www.sccpanthers.losrios.edu/sports/sball/.
