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El Modena players get ready to mob sophomore Parker Mayes after her walk-off home run in the ninth inning Thursday. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
El Modena High School’s softball team survived some ups and downs against a tough Poway team which battled back to send Thursday’s CIF So Cal Division I regional semifinal into extra innings.
But the top-seeded Vanguards put up a battle of their own, winning 8-6 at El Modena on a walk-off two-run home run by sophomore Parker Mayes with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out, Monica Garcia walked, followed by Mayes’ blast, her second home run of the game.
El Modena (23-9) moves on to face No. 2-seeded Mater Dei Catholic (26-7). Saturday at 4 p.m. at El Modena in the regional final. Mater Dei Catholic defeated Bonita Vista 5-4 Thursday in the other semifinal.
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“It was just really good to provide that for my team,” Mayes said. “I was going up there thinking hard hit, just get the ball on the ground and get a baserunner on but it was the right swing at the right time, it felt good.
“It started off super good, I think the energy kind of died a little somewhere in the middle and then they came back and scored some more runs so it was bang-bang, like we got to get some more runs on the board and I’m just glad I could be the one who could provide that.”
It was the first game in the regional for El Modena, which had a first round bye. The Vanguards were the CIF Division 1 runner-up, losing to Norco 3-0 Saturday in the championship game at Deanna Manning Stadium.
“What an awesome opportunity for our school and our program to be able to continue to be able to represent all of us after the CIF championship game,” said ninth-year coach Bobby Calderon. “I told the girls this is an honor for us and we want to go out and fulfill that commitment, we’re very fortunate we got the number one seed and we earned that.
“So let’s go out and put on a show and I think that’s what we showed up and tried to do. We had contributions from all of our girls, pretty much everyone got in the game today.”
El Modena jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run homer by Monica Garcia. The Vanguards added three more runs in the third inning, two coming on a double by Jocelyn Alatorre who was 3 for 3.
Poway (24-9) responded with four runs in the fifth inning, two coming on a single by Sophia Burmeister to cut the lead to 5-4.
In the bottom of the inning, Mayes blasted a solo home run to push El Modena’s lead to 6-4.
But in the top of the seventh inning, Poway put together five hits to score two runs and tie the game 6-6.
Poway also had scoring opportunities in the eighth and ninth inning, but reliever Jules Vegas worked out of trouble.
El Modena also had scoring chances in the seventh and eight innings before Mayes ended the game.
Ashley Driskill started on the mound for El Modena, pitching four shutout innings before Poway got going offensively.
“The pitchers were fantastic,” Calderon said. “I thought Ashley did a phenomenal job, she ran out of gas a little when they started getting those bloop hits, that kind of got them going and before you know it, uh-oh, it’s 5-4. And then Julianna Vega coming in getting her first varsity victory. She was on JV all year for us. That’s as good a team as we’ve played all year, top to bottom, they’re legit.”
Poway outhit El Modena 16-10 but made three errors.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com