The tale of the tape cleared favored the top-seeded Sutter High softball team after the Huskies played their way to at least a top-five ranking in the MaxPreps Sac-Joaquin Section poll all season, earned the No. 1 seed in the SJS Division V playoffs and had 13 run-rule wins on their resume.
All that said, Orestimba High head coach Joaquin Marroquin knew that it would not be a runaway.
“Everyone was asking me back at Newman what kind of game it is going to be?” Marroquin said. “It’s going to be a low-scoring game and will come down to who makes mistakes. There were no mistakes, there was just good softball. Today we had that extra energy.”
Orestimba, seeded fourth, was led in part by senior pitcher and Simpson University commit, Jacquelyn Lujan who silenced the potent Sutter lineup for zero runs through nine innings to shock one of the best teams in the state, 4-0, on its home field.
“That was an incredible battle for these girls against a team like (Sutter),” Marroquin said.
Lujan, anchored in part by a sunflower blowing in the wind off the back of her head, struck out 12 Huskies batters and allowed just one hit, according to Orestimba’s scorebook.
“She has a lot of movement and we have a deal between us (that) if she doesn’t like what I am (calling) she will give me a signal and I know she will call) me off,” Marroquin said. “I trust her enough to make some calls and she made a few of those in this game. I knew it was going to be a battle, I knew it was going to be a pitcher’s duel.”
Pitcher’s duel it was, as Sutter junior Olivia Bauer equaled Lujan inning-by-inning with multiple strikeouts of her own throughout the extra-inning ballgame. Bauer even overcame two illegal pitches in the second inning to keep Orestimba scoreless through eight innings.
In the top of the ninth, someone finally broke through, and it was the visitors. Joslyn Sotelo singled and stole second, later reaching third on a groundout to second baseman Guinaiya Ayuyu Garcia. Sotelo would score on a base hit from Belany Martens, pushing the Warriors’ lead to 1-0.
At that point, the flood gates opened with Orestimba loading the bases for HannahTaft’s three-run triple off Bauer that hit the fence in right to clear the bags and extend the lead to 4-0 in the top of the ninth.
Bauer would eventually stop the bleeding to give herself and Sutter (26-2) one last chance in the bottom of the ninth.
But Lujan, like she did all afternoon, quieted the Sutter bats to complete the upset.
“I always say that this game is a game of adjustments, and the team in close games that comes out on top is the team that makes the adjustments the quickest,” Sutter coach Stefanie Danna said. “We were telling them to stay composed, make sure you are looking for your pitch every single at-bat, but she did a great job keeping us off balance.”
Despite the loss, only Sutter’s third in the last three seasons, Danna remained proud of a team that each year remains of the best in the state on the diamond.
Danna called the leader of this year’s unit Olivia Bauer.
“Olivia is the heart of this team. From the moment that (Riley Wickum) stepped off the mound Olivia has risen to every occasion that we asked her to do,” Danna said. “She had to go to the mound pretty much permanently all season and I am incredibly proud of how she stepped up and led this team.”
Bauer is one of 12 junior starters to return to the Buttes for an opportunity at a Sac-Joaquin Section title in 2024.
Orestimba (22-4) is in action today to take on No. 3 Wheatland in the SJS D-V championship to be played at 4 p.m. at Cosumnes River College.
