By Ed Piper
La Jolla's Emmy Cardenas, capping a storybook high school softball career, drove in the go-ahead runs with a booming double in the ninth inning, and pitched the West team to an exciting 7-6 come-from-behind win in the CIF Senior All-Star Game Thursday night, June 8, at UCSD.
Disney couldn't have written a better script as the 5'8" senior, headed to Winthrop University in South Carolina, held the East squad to one hit over two innings in the seventh and eighth innings of a special nine-inning exhibition before a packed house at the UCSD softball stadium.
Then, after her sparkling pitching, Emmy--who was simultaneously named the U.S. Marine Corps Distinguished Female on LJHS Awards Night Thursday evening held on the La Jolla High campus 5.8 miles away--stepped to the plate with two outs in the top of the ninth and blasted her two-bagger on one bounce to the fence in centerfield to drive in two runs and break a 5-5 tie.
The West squad had just scored three runs in the frame to come from a 5-2 deficit and knot the score at 5-all.
The West starter, Payton Correia of Clairemont, came back into the game to pitch the bottom of the ninth. With the crowd going crazy, she gave up one run but made the second RBI stand up for the margin of victory in the narrow victory.
Cardenas' West team, coached by 18-year veteran Lori Schmersal of Clairemont High, dug a 5-0 hole for itself earlier in the game, giving up four runs in the fourth and another in the fifth.
But the bespectacled Emmy and company came back to reverse their fortunes and end their high school careers on a winning note. For her pitching and hitting heroics, the Viking 12th-grader, who attended nearby Muirlands Middle School in the seventh and eighth grades, was named the game's MVP.
No comments:
Post a Comment