Berkeley High School (BHS)’s girls varsity softball team took on Bishop O’Dowd High School on the evening of May 12. The match concluded with O’Dowd winning 3-0 against BHS, who put up a good defense, but didn’t counterattack offensively.
The game started off slowly, both sides yet to score a run after three innings. Berkeley’s number 22, Avery Lyman, came close, but three outs cut her off before a chance to reach home. Despite the slow start, the next couple of innings completely turned the tables in favor of O’Dowd.
On the first run that was made, BHS’ second baseman ran into the umpire, which O’Dowd used to score and gain the upper hand. For the rest of the game, the mix up weighed heavily on the BHS team. Paola Gunier, a junior in Academic Choice (AC) noted, “As a team, when something doesn’t go the way we planned I think that our energy goes down.”
The next O’Dowd point came as a result of confusion, “a line drive in foul territory that I thought was foul, but apparently it hit Avery’s glove,” as Elise Nudel, a junior in AC, recalled. This allowed O’Dowd to hit a triple, and complete the run with a single during the next at-bat. With this, BHS’ spirits sank further.
The last run, an O’Dowd double, brought a runner from second home. The following innings were fraught with frustration for the BHS team, who knew that the stakes were high, but in the end could not manage a run. AC junior Rosie Green pinned the loss down to a “need [for] more communication… and lifting each other up.”
As the match ended, O’Dowd rejoiced about winning against BHS after two straight losses, while BHS huddled together to reflect on their loss.
“Our bats just never came to life,” said coach Jason Kaneko. “The last couple of times we played them, we were able to take advantage of their mistakes, and today they took advantage of ours,” reflected Kaneko about their defeat.