On Saturday morning (May 16), there was plenty of pomp and
circumstance and smiles to go around as Xavier Prep’s four senior softball
players marched with their classmates at the school’s graduation ceremony.
By late afternoon, circumstances had changed and the
seniors, along with their underclassman teammates, fought back tears as the
Gators were eliminated from the Division I state tournament 9-2 by Phoenix
Sandra Day O’Connor.
The winner’s bracket contest in the double-elimination
tournament originally was to be played on Friday night (May 15) at the Rose
Mofford Sports complex in Phoenix, but was postponed until Saturday due to
rain.
Third-seeded Xavier had dropped from the winner’s bracket on
Thursday night (May 14) with a 7-3 loss to Glendale Mountain Ridge, the No. 1
seed. The win by second-seeded O’Connor over Xavier sets up a title game
between the top two seeds on Monday night (May 18) at Arizona State’s
Farrington Stadium.
Xavier (26-9) held a 2-0 lead over O’Connor on a run-scoring
single by Annamarie Hartman in the top of the second inning and an RBI double
by Amanda Preach in the third. But the Gators could have had more, leaving five
runners stranded in the first three innings and three more the rest of the
contest.
O’Connor (35-7) got out of some dangerous situations with
its defense, coming up with four double plays. In three of those situations,
Xavier runners were doubled off the bases following line drives.
“We hit the ball well, but I guess it was too well – right
to them,’’ said Xavier assistant coach Joe Bogart, who was placed in the role
of head coach for this one after head coach Bobby Pena was ejected from the
game against Mountain Ridge. Pena watched most of the game as he stood beyond
the portable fence in center field.
Xavier did not play O’Connor during the regular season or
the playoffs, but Bogart had an idea that it was going to take more than two
runs by the Gators to win the game.
“They (O’Connor) don’t give up – they won a lot of their
games late, just like we did,’’ he said.
O’Connor tied it at 2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of
the fourth and took the lead for good with three in the fifth, all of those
runs coming on a home run by Hayley Busby. It appeared that Xavier center
fielder Megan Donahey might have caught the ball at first when she made contact
with the fence in left-center and tumbled over, but that was not the case.
The Eagles sewed it up with four more in the sixth, on six
hits. They did not have any hits over the first three innings, but finished
with 13.
“We played good enough to win, but it just didn’t happen,’’
Bogart said. “It was a tough loss, and I feel bad for our seniors (Preach, Sam
Sydenham, Emily Jordan, Mallory Belknap). Our seniors were great leaders for
us. I don’t know how you replace something like that.’’