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MOUNTAIN VIEW — In a pitchers’ duel between the West Catholic Athletic League’s best teams, all it took was one swing of Rebecca Quinn’s bat to put St. Francis ahead of Archbishop Mitty on the scoreboard and even with the Monarchs in the WCAL standings.
The two-run homer over the left-field wall in the sixth inning was all the offense St. Francis needed to triumph 2-0 on Friday afternoon and tied Mitty with a 7-1 record in the league.
“I was anticipating that pitch, and I knew what I had to do,” said Quinn, who batted 3 for 3.
One of the first players to greet her at home plate was junior pitcher Kate Munnerlyn, who had thrown six no-hit innings to that point.
“I was like, ‘Heck yeah …. Yeah, it’s on,’” Munnerlyn said.
Munnerlyn would finish off the no-no with a 1-2-3 seventh, ending the day with 10 strikeouts and just two walks. Freshman Kyleigh Mace was up to the challenge to match her for the Monarchs, working her way out of trouble multiple times until Quinn connected for the late home run.
“It’s a pitcher’s duel and both pitchers were high level,” St. Francis coach Mike Oakland said. “I feel like she matched our pitcher pitch-for-pitch, and we just got one.”
Of Munnerlyn’s two walks, only the first one in the top of the first inning was unintentional.
“Once I threw out that warmup pitch in the second, I was like ‘Okay, I’m getting ready,’” Munnerlyn said. “That’s when I started having fun, once I started to get people to swing. And my changeup was on today.”
It was a game played with the intensity one would expect from a matchup between the two best teams in the league, the Central Coast Section and possibly all of Northern California.
Left fielder Keira Brady had to leave the game in the second inning after she crashed face-first into the wall trying to make an acrobatic catch.
“You want those kids who figuratively run through a wall for you, right,” said Mitty coach Megan Yocke. “She literally did that for us today.”
A third game between the West Catholic Athletic League powers seems inevitable in the Central Coast Section playoffs. St. Francis defeated Archbishop Mitty 6-5 in last year’s thrilling CCS final.
“Hopefully we’ll see them again, and it’ll be the rubber match,” Yocke said. “We know every time we play St. Francis, it’s going to be a tough game.”
Archbishop Mitty had snapped an eight-game losing streak to St. Francis on April 19, when the Monarchs rallied from a two-run deficit in the sixth inning to win 3-2 at home.
Since the loss to Mitty two and a half weeks ago, St. Francis had been on a roll, winning its previous five by a 59-2 margin. Quinn attributed the practice following that game as a reason for the team’s focus coming into Friday’s rematch.
“That practice the next day was absolutely insane,” Quinn remembered.
Mitty, riding a 10-game streak, sandwiched a 3-2 victory at perennial Central Coast Section power Hollister around run-rule wins against Presentation and Sacred Heart Cathedral.
The league race isn’t necessarily over, with both teams having two WCAL games left on their respective schedules. Archbishop Mitty plays at St. Ignatius on Wednesday before finishing its regular season by hosting Valley Christian. Meanwhile, St. Francis hosts Valley Christian and then visits Sacred Heart Cathedral.
But if they play to their potential, these two powerhouses will likely split the WCAL title — which the Lancers knew could only happen with a win on Friday.
“We were unfortunate or on the wrong side of that last time, so it’s nice to be on the right side this time,” Oakland said.
Source: www.mercurynews.com