‘I love my team’: Elk Grove softball ace credits third-ranked team that counts on her
About the only time Aissa Silva might have shown some nerves is when she first moved to California from Arizona.
She was 13 and didn’t know a soul. Now a sophomore at Elk Grove High School, Silva has become a big sports name in town as the very definition of calm, execution and dominance in the pitching circle as the Thundering Herd ace.
Scoring four runs in the top of the first inning and with Silva striking out 14, No. 3 Elk Grove beat Franklin 4-2 Tuesday in a Delta League opener.
Silva now has 98 strikeouts this season for her 9-2 team and she hardly broke a sweat Tuesday. Not because she didn’t respect the Wildcats. She appreciates all opponents. She doesn’t get rattled, not when she’s on her game and her defense is, too.
“She’s amazing,” is how Thundering Herd coach Amanda Buck described her low-key star. “She knows her job, what to do. She’s in command in the circle and she’s confident.”
Silva also has a reliable batterymate in catcher Brookyn Pettis, a senior captain and a four-year starter who came into this game batting .500 with three home runs. Pettis had two singles against Franklin and called a masterful game behind the plate in keeping a young, talented Franklin team off-balance.
“Brooklyn calls all the pitches because they’ve got something special between them communication wise,” Buck said of her catcher and pitcher. “I trust them, and they do a great job.”
Elk Grove went to work right away, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Kate Wolf, a Mo Berner single, a Taylor Fitzgerald walk with the bases loaded and Maya Gonzalez’s single to make it 4-0. Franklin (2-4) switched pitchers, going with freshman Scarlett Riddle in the second inning, and she helped keep the prolific Herd in check. Buck was impressed, as was Wildcats coach Ron Cervellin.
“I like how we competed and hung in there because it could have gotten ugly with their great pitcher Silva, who just owned us,” Cervellin said. “Scarlett was good. We’re competing.”
Which is a far cry from what Franklin had just over three years ago. When Cervellin took over as coach, there were 11 softball players in the entire program and there was no JV team. The program that won the 2006 Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship fell on hard times, punctuated by a general lack of player interest.
Now there’s interest and talent, including leadoff hitter Kealani Nitta, who scored her team’s first run on a double-steal in the fourth inning. Adania Sanchez’s fielder’s choice RBI scored Fitzgerald for the second run in the seventh before Silva ended it with a strikeout. Other key players include Jadyn Fernald, Nailyn Marshall, Cora Ellis, Madison Brooks, Clarissa Crapo, Emma Nelson and Hailey Morgan-Voyce.
“Last year, before COVID hit us, we had 38 kids in the program, varsity and JV,” Cervellin said. “I think we might’ve had a good season but we lost all that. We’re getting there.”
The Herd seems to always be there in the title hunt, a section playoff regular with 13 consecutive playoff berths and section championships in 2004 and 2010. There were also title-game showings six other times since 2000, including the 2000 team that included a fiery shortstop named Amanda Buck. She hasn’t changed much.
Buck challenged her team after the Franklin outing to be even better, to collect more hits, to back their ace, to be sharper, to “put it all together.”
“Oh, I’m super proud of these girls, and I know how well we can hit and how well we can play,” the sixth-year coach said. “I have to push them. I don’t know if it’s not having a section postseason this year that takes away some of our edge, but we can get better.”
For Elk Grove, leadoff hitter Brooke Hanson had a double, Pettis, hitting second, had two hits, Wolf, batting .609 coming in, had another RBI, and Marissa Marshall, hitting cleanup, had a triple. Even the bottom of the order is a tough out with Mo Berner and Mo Price combining for three hits and Fitzgerald and Gonzalez doing their part.
“I love my team,” Silva said with a broad smile. “I feel good with my defense behind me. I know we can push ourselves to be even better.”
Being better is what Buck heard plenty of when she was earning Bee All-Metro honors at Elk Grove from 1997-2000. She set a bevy of school scoring records in basketball and gave it her all in softball, all the while plotting a full-circle return to her roots. Some people can’t wait to get away from high school. Buck couldn’t wait to return.
She coached girls basketball at Elk Grove for seven seasons and has coached the softball program for the last six.
“I bleed blue and gold,” Buck said of Elk Grove’s school colors. “I love Elk Grove. My basketball coach Chris Evans (now the superintendent of the Natomas Unified School District) was my everything. He’s how I got into college at San Bernardino. I knew I wanted to be a coach and physical education teacher.”
How dialed into the program is Buck?
“I went into labor with my third child, my son Cody, in 2016 in right field during a practice,” Buck said with a laugh. “Crazy.”