By GERARDO RECINOS
Martinez Tribune
The rain has had a hand in canceling at least two Alhambra softball games, so on Saturday against College Park, there was no way they weren’t going to get through it.
The Lady Bulldogs’ commanding 18-0 win on May 7 started at 11 a.m., and the rain ended at around 12:45, what really flew through the air in Pleasant Hill wasn’t rain, but bright yellow softballs off the bats of the stout Bulldogs.
Paul Buccellato’s girls pounded out 16 hits in the game, the fifth time this season they’ve hit more than 15, on their way to an easy win over the rival Falcons.
After coming off of a less than sparkling outing in a 5-3 win over Dublin, the Lady Dogs needed to do something big against the Falcons. They did enough to win three hitters into the first inning.
With Bri Perez and Karlee Sparacino getting the offense into gear, it made it easy for senior Sam Whitworth to maintain a calm presence on the mound, and she was unfazed by anything the Falcons did at the plate.
All the while the offense backed her up by three runs in the second inning, and two runs in the third. They did it in many different ways a the plate.
Kimikp Zapanta drove in a run with the ball leaving the infield, while Perez preferred to do so by tripling into the gap. Sparacino just got under the ball and ended up driving in a run via sacrifice fly.
After the Bulldogs had scored ten runs, the College Park coaches made a change, withdrawing sophomore Emma Wigren for another sophomore, Gabriella Zagone.
Zagone fared worse than Wigren. She was greeted by a host of Bulldogs who jumped on her offerings early. Regan Silva’s single started a string of six straight hitters who drove in a run, with the exclamation point coming from Perez.
The reigning Diablo Foothill Athletic League MVP blasted a two-run home run to cap the inning and allow sophomore Briana Edwards to get into the game with a huge lead.
Edwards rarely faced any trouble, but pitched to contact and got a big double play turn in the fourth. She was rewarded with a bit more insurance on a solo home run by Silva, no that she needed it.
Edwards twirled a clean second inning of work in relief as the game was ended via run-rule, much to the delight of the rain-soaked crowd who sighed in disbelief when they emerged from their tents and removed their hoods to find out the rain had long since let up.
But they knew all along the Bulldog girls would not.
