Prep softball: Tiny East Nicolaus rallies past Hanford, ready for Central of Fresno
With her East Nicolaus softball team trailing Hanford 2-1 in the fifth inning Tuesday, senior shortstop Remmington Hewitt heard a little advice from her coaches.
Hit a ground ball up the middle, they told her. She had a 1-2 count and runners on second and third. Just need a nice solid grounder up the middle here.
Hewitt nodded, took a deep breath, then hammered a home run over the left-centerfield fence. The Spartans players and coaches erupted, circling home plate and generally going beserk for Hewitt, whose three-run shot gave East Nicolaus a 4-2 win in a Northern California Regional quarterfinal.
That’s what you get with Hewitt, a senior who’s going to Oregon to play in college, coach Neil Stinson said. The ground ball instruction was more of a suggestion or a mindset than an instruction.
“She’s not really wired that way,” Stinson said. “And I could see she did shorten up her swing, which speaks a lot, but I mean, it’s more of a mindset. I think it puts her in the right frame of mind. You don’t have to think about crushing this ball and that’s generally when she hits the ball even better, is when she kind of takes that off your mind a little bit. “
“Yeah, so maybe I’m gonna get in the box and just do what I do,” Hewitt said with a laugh.
Hey, whatever works. East Nicolaus spent four innings baffled by Hanford pitcher Lillianna Garcia, who allowed just a pair of singles while striking out seven Spartans in the first four innings.
With East Nicolaus down 2-0 after three innings, Hewitt called a team meeting on the field to discuss the situation. The Spartans could see Garcia was a power pitcher who overwhelmingly threw rise balls. The message from Hewitt and the coaches was simple: You know what she’s throwing, now it’s time to adapt.
It didn’t click right away for the Spartans, who trailed 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning. Junior catcher Audrey Gillespie started the inning with a double. Aaliyah Tinoco followed with a walk, but the rally seemed to stall, as Garcia got two quick outs.
But Jerzie Brown had an RBI single to trim the Hanford lead to 2-1 and set the stage for Hewitt’s lined shot.
“We seem to do a pretty good job that second time we get a look at a girl,” Stinson said. “That second time through seems to be like you can just see the light start going on. Alright, I got it figured out.”
Meika Lauppe, East Nicolaus’ junior pitcher, said the Spartans’ adjustments are simply part of their game.
“Our big thing is getting better approaches and changing as we go, and like knowing, okay, we know what she throws now, you can’t let her continue to be dominant,” Lauppe said. “And then it’s never over ‘til it’s over.”
It was lights out after Hewitt’s home run, thanks in large part to Lauppe, who’s going to Arizona State after next year. Lauppe didn’t allow a base runner after the third inning. By the seventh inning, she was absolutely rolling. Laupe struck out the side in the seventh inning to ensure there was no dramatic comeback.
“I think it was because our energy got better and better, and as the game goes on, and when Remington hits out the home run, it just changes the entire momentum,” Lauppe said. “So from there, that energy just really got me going and I knew like my team was there and they had my back and I had to have their backs.”
East Nicolaus’ rally left the home fans ecstatic. A school of just more than 300 kids, the Spartans had a couple hundred fans at the field for the game against Hanford, a school of more than 1,500 students from the Fresno area.
“Our fans are insane,” Lauppe said. “… Even when we’re on the road, we have more fans on the other team, and this school is only 300 kids, but everybody comes out to these games. Our fans are what set us apart.”
“Spartan softball is one of the most rewarding things that I’ve ever been able to play for,” Hewitt said. “And I think everyone that shows up each and every one of these days, whether they have a kid on the team or not. I think that that’s one of the best things about our community and Spartan softball itself. No matter how many games we win, lose, we still have each and every one of these fence lines filled up, and that’s honestly something that I’ll remember forever. That’s our community.”
East Nicolaus has likely hosted its final game of the season. The Spartans now face a David-and-Goliath game Thursday with Central of Fresno, a high school of about 4,200 students. Whoever wins that game will likely face Sutter, the top seed in Division III, in the championship game Saturday.
Informed by their coaches in the postgame huddle they’d be heading to Fresno, Hewitt had a suggestion: Let’s stop at Dutch Bros. to get coffee. Her teammates cheered. Stinson said he knows a good pizza place from when his son competed in wrestling tournaments down there. Oh, and you’ll probably get out of school around 9:30 a.m. to make the long drive, coaches said with a laugh. Everybody cheered.
Sure, they’re a small school competing against a school with 14 times the number of students. Whatever. Let’s play ball.
“I think we’re thrilled to be in it,” Hewitt said. “Honestly, it’s just more time to compete. I think this team specifically is one that loves to compete. We are up for anything, and I think more competition, a wider range of teams. I think that’s something that we’re looking forward to this year. And so we’re stoked for it.”
Other area games
Division I
Sheldon 7, Archbishop Mitty 6: Visiting Archbishop Mitty scored four times before Sheldon had its first at bat. They led 5-2 going into Sheldon’s last at-bat. The Huskies scored five times in the bottom of the seventh to overthrow the Monarchs and move on to the semifinals of the Northern California regional tournament.
Jaylee Ojo came on in relief in the first inning and gave up only two hits the rest of the way with 10 strikeouts. Reina Zermeno’s two hits drove in three runs, Dakota Kennedy tripled and singled with one RBI, and Imani Black added a two-run double. The walk-off was Sheldon’s 12th straight win, improving its record to 28-5 on the year. Sheldon faces St. Francis of the Bay Area in the semifinals.
Del Oro 5, Granada 1: On the other side of the bracket in Placer County, great defensive plays and another heroic effort from Caroline Grimes in the circle moved Del Oro past Granada. Grimes struck out six batters, pitching with a lacerated heel that required heavy bandages. She had an RBI single in the fourth inning to give Del Oro a 2-1 lead, and singled in another run in the sixth inning to give the Eagles their final 5-1 margin.
Del Oro is 27-4, the No. 2 seed in Division I, will host 26-6 Clovis, the No. 3 seed, Thursday at 4 p.m.
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 7:52 PM.