LADY BRUINS gather at home plate to congratulate Neenah Pangilinan after the sophomore hit a home run in Friday’s North Coast Section Division IV quarterfinals.

A rusty St. Patrick-St. Vincent High softball team shook off the dust and dusted off visiting Cardinal Newman, 6-2, in Friday’s quarterfinals of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs.

The Lady Bruins (22-5) hadn’t played in 15 days – a bitter loss to Pinole Valley in the Tri-County Athletic League championship game that left a bad taste in SPSV’s mouth.

“It was good to come back with a win after losing our last game,” said senior Taya de Alba, who pitched a complete game for SPSV.

The No. 2 seeded Lady Bruins were rusty early and No. 7 seed Cardinal Newman (11-9) took advantage. Singles by Emily Jaffe and Lexie Raasch produced a run in the first inning and a solo homer by freshman Cassie Killeen in the top of the second gave the Lady Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

“I knew we were gonna come out flat,” said SPSV manager Rich Gigliotti. “You can try and simulate games in practice all you want but it’s not the same. But we got better as the game went on.”

“Practicing for more than two weeks, it’s hard to get that game feel back in,” de Alba said. “I had to step it up because I didn’t want this to be my last game. After the second inning we started to pick things up and got better and better.”

The Lady Bruins left the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning but finally broke through for a run in the third thanks to singles by Jennifer Adams and Jaydee Boursaw and a sacrifice fly by de Alba. SPSV took a 4-2 lead with a three-run fourth inning highlighted by a two-out, two-run double by Chelsea Mari.

Sophomore Neenah Pangilinan hit a solo homer in the sixth to make it 5-2, and a RBI single by de Alba scored best friend Jennifer Adams to give the Lady Bruins some breathing room.

The Lady Bruins host No. 3 seed Fortuna on Wednesday in the NCS D-IV semifinals. Fortuna (24-4) features pitcher Hailey Dolcini, a sophomore who has already committed to U.C. Riverside. Dolcini is 22-4 with a 0.47 earned-run average and has 331 strikeouts in 165 innings pitched.

“It looks like we’ll be very competitive with each other and it should be fun,” Gigliotti said.

“Me and the rest of the four-year seniors want to make it to the NCS championship game four years in a row,” de Alba said. “That would be a great thing to accomplish.”

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