Prep softball: Vista Del Lago shows its depth in playoff win, but a challenge awaits

Charlize Cai’s eyes almost popped out of her head Thursday afternoon.

The Vista Del Lago softball player got just enough of a first-inning pitch to knock out a two-run home run and give her team a 3-0 lead over Ponderosa. Cai circled the bases with her arms over her head. When she hit home plate, her teammates all patted her on the helmet.

The celebration never really stopped for the Eagles, who screamed past Ponderosa with an 8-1 win in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division III quarterfinal Thursday. Lots of Vista Del Lago players got into the act. Sophomore Annabella Hess came off the bench to hit a two-run homer in the fifth. Star shortstop Taylor Biehl had three hits. Junior Olivia Manchester had three hits. Though they’re just the fourth seed in the tournament, the Eagles look like a very dangerous team, with plenty of reason to celebrate.

“That’s pretty much exactly what can happen,” Manchester said. “We have probably two people for every position. We have a lot of girls who play both infield and outfield and we just have some really good young freshmen who have come in and sophomores, people from JV, everybody’s just done a good job.”

Nobody did a better job than Cai on Thursday. The sophomore had two singles to go with her second home run of the year. On the mound, Cai bordered on dominance. She struck out eight and allowed four hits. She was quick to give credit to assistant coach Troy Biehl for his work Thursday.

“My success comes from him too, because of the way he calls pitches, that’s where you have to play mind games in a way, and he really does that,” she said. “… He’s a great pitch-caller.”

That would explain why, just like the batting lineup, it doesn’t really matter which pitcher Vista Del Lago uses. Three hurlers have an ERA under 2.00.

It’s a young Eagles roster that’s putting up these numbers. There are three seniors on the roster; two will play in college.

Vista Del Lago has dominated Division III competition this season. The Eagles’ four losses all were to teams that are still alive in the Division I and Division II tournaments. But the challenge gets tougher in Tuesday’s semifinal, where Vista Del Lago will face top-seeded Vanden, which is 20-0 this season.

To prepare, the Eagles were doing absolutely nothing Friday. Practice was canceled. You play a good game, you get a day off. That’s the way coach Julie Neves has run the team for four seasons.

“Our philosophy is, you know, in practice, we work on things to be prepared to play in the next game, and obviously, we’re gonna have a really good, focused, productive practice on Monday,” Neves said. “But you know, they work so hard all year. They have finals coming up next week. Is there anything that we feel is so pressing that they wouldn’t be better served recharging? And then most of the girls, they work so hard, they’re going to do stuff over the weekend anyway.”

Asked what makes the team unique, both Manchester and Cai cited the coaching staff’s attitude toward the work that must be done. This is a team of high achievers, they said, and they don’t need to be pushed any harder than they push themselves.

“Everybody just works together,” Manchester said. “You really don’t know who’s a freshman, who’s a sophomore, who’s a junior, who’s the senior because everybody just truly just gets along and we just push each other.”

That was Neves’ game plan all along. And everybody knows what’s at stake in the playoffs. In the postgame huddle, players and coaches wondered aloud about whether Vanden won its playoff game. (A journalist found that, indeed, Vanden beat Los Banos 4-1.) The Eagles are sailing along right now and Neves and Co. hope the ride lasts a bit longer.

“You know, it’s really exciting. I don’t want to say we’re peaking at the right time. I don’t feel like we’re peaking, but this is exactly what I was talking about where it’s like, we know we haven’t hit three home runs in a game yet (and then they did so Thursday),” Neves said. “But we just feel like everything is clicking on every level. So I am excited.”