Prep softball: Shorthanded Del Oro knocked out in NorCal semis against Clovis

The Del Oro softball team didn’t have all its band members present to play all the hits.

But the Golden Eagles still put on quite an encore performance after a Sac-Joaquin Section championship run. And when the final curtain came down on a 27-5 campaign Thursday in Loomis, they exited to a standing ovation.

“It has been nothing short of an amazing run this year,” Del Oro head coach Sean Erickson said.

Erickson’s 2022 bunch came full circle. His senior class reached the section championship game as freshmen in 2019, had two years of playoffs wiped out due to COVID-19. They came back to complete their mission as seniors with resilience, grit and chemistry. A week after winning the program’s eighth section title by outlasting St. Francis in a 10-9 thriller, Del Oro was one win away from reaching uncharted territory.

Down by four to Clovis in the Division I Northern California region semifinal, Del Oro brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning. Senior right fielder Kayleigh Lugowski homered earlier in the game, but Clovis senior Lauryn Carranco found a way to get the strikeout to end Del Oro’s season and advance to the D-I NorCal final with a 6-2 win.

A chance to compete until the final at-bat was all that Erickson and company could have asked for.

“So you’re telling me the tying run’s at the plate with two outs?” Erickson said after the game. “When this team has 44 home runs on the year, we are one swing away from shocking them and almost sending them home. My hat’s off to Clovis. An amazing program. Great group.”

Del Oro was missing three starters Thursday, who were all away on pre-planned family vacations. But the Golden Eagles had the means to fill in where needed. Oregon State-bound second baseman Jenna Birch shifted over to shortstop to fill in for the Nevada-bound leading hitter for Del Oro, Haylee Engelbrecht. Birch went 2-for-3 and made a diving stop for an out at short.

Reagann Hoblit shifted to second base from her normal third base post. Freshman Abby Davidson moved from left field to center for the missing Gabby Enyart while fellow underclassmen Jill Theodorou and Ari Bottel platooned in left.

“I think we did well with what we had,” Birch said. “Ari and Jill, they came up and got some nice cuts up there. Ari with a double, almost going over the fence almost took my breath away. It was insane. But I’m really proud of them for stepping up and not being scared at the moment.”

And without leading home run hitter Kendal Manley, who homered in five consecutive games entering the NorCal tournament, Lugowski provided the offensive punch with a two-run homer in the second inning that gave Del Oro a 2-0 lead. Her fourth homer of the season was the first time any team had plated a run off of the CSU Northridge-bound Carranco since the postseason began. Carranco had thrown four consecutive shutouts leading up to Thursday’s meeting in Loomis.

But Clovis, the Central Section D-I champion, erupted for a five-run fourth inning, highlighted by a two-run homer by senior Maddy Henson. Sophomore Sveva Sweeney added a solo shot in the top of the seventh to make it 6-2 Clovis.

Only four of the six runs Grimes allowed were earned. Grimes, who battled through a freak-accident foot injury before the section finals, tossed all seven innings and struck out three while going 3-for-3 with a double at the plate. She also went the distance with six punchouts and hit two run-scoring singles in a 5-1 win against Granada of Livermore in the NorCal opener on Tuesday.

“It’s been quite a journey,” said the UC Davis-bound Grimes. “We get to play with our best friends every single day, so obviously fun comes with that. And that’s what we do. We have practice, we have fun. We have games, we have fun. We always have fun. So there’s never a dull moment on our team.”

Erickson acknowledged a different feel to the inaugural NorCal postseason but expressed gratitude toward his team for being “the group that future Del Oro teams will be measured by.”

“I felt like we had spent everything we had to (win sections), and then here we are, one game away from traveling south and going to the top game in Northern California,” Erickson said. “My team’s a top-four team in Northern California this year, a top section team, and top 10 in the state. What do you say about that other than ‘Thank you, ladies. Appreciate you for taking me along for the ride.’ ”