Miracle II: Terra Linda Stuns Tam Again in Softball

“I have to be honest,” softball coach said after Friday’s North Coast Section quarterfinal game against Tam. “If we were going to beat them again, I knew it was going to take something crazy.”

Alas, it wouldn’t be a Terra Linda-Tam softball game if it didn’t involve something a little crazy, and that’s exactly what occurred in the Trojans’ exciting 4-3, nine-inning triumph that kept their magical season alive.

You want crazy …

How about giving up three early runs to the team with the best pitcher in the Marin County Athletic League, then rallying to tie without getting a hit?

How about striking out 12 times against said pitcher and applauding the effort?

And how about watching a sure season-ending home run get blown back into the ballpark, allowing the game to get extended another couple of innings?

“It’s been a great year,” Lucchi said of a team that hadn’t come close to making the playoffs since 2004, “but we’re not going to go away just because we’ve gone this far.”

The latest miraculous win came on the same field as their most incredible victory of the season, one in which the Tam players were lining up to shake hands after the game had apparently ended, only to have an out call at first base reversed. Six pitches later, belted a Kim Scarsella pitch for a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it home run and a 4-3 victory.

There’s no way Round 3 – the Red-tailed Hawks had avenged the first loss with a win at Terra Linda in between – could live up to Round 1. But it sure came close.

Leadoff hitter got the Trojans on the board in the top of the first, then singlehandedly saved the lead in the bottom of the second by picking a Tam runner off third base with a throw from center field.

But when the Hawks exploded for three in the third …

“Going into the game, I didn’t think we could give up more than two runs,” Coach Lucchi admitted. “Thought maybe one, maybe no runs … When they got three, I knew it was going to be tough.”

And it was, but the Trojans were up to the task. Without getting a hit, no less.

They got even in the sixth when Prickett reached base on an error and Ally Lucchi walked. Both alertly advanced on a flyball to center field, and Prickett got the Trojans within one by scoring on a passed ball.

When hit a slow grounder to shortstop, Lucchi broke for the plate and scored the tying run.

“That’s a case,” Coach Lucchi noted, “where if we strike out, we don’t get that run. But Mikayla was able to do exactly what we needed and we were able to tie it up.”

Nonetheless, the game appeared lost in the bottom of the seventh when Tam slugger Aria Pogni belted one toward the Bay. But the wind kept the ball in play, and Terra Linda pitcher was able to escape the inning without allowing a run.

“That ball was hit harder than Ally’s,” Coach Lucchi said of his daughter’s dramatic homer back in March. “That was gone if the wind’s not blowing.”

But that’s not how a fairy tale would end.

With Jones on second, two outs in the ninth inning and still without a hit, the Trojans watched , hitting star of the first-round win over Campolindo, drive a single to left-center. Jones didn’t get a good jump off second base, which made the play at the plate close, but she was called safe.

“That gave us something to work on Monday at practice,” Coach Lucchi said of Jones’ baserunning.

The Trojans finished the game with two hits and 12 strikeouts, three fewer than they’d recorded against Scarsella in seven innings in the previous meeting.

“We did knock it down some,” Coach Lucchi gushed of the strikeout total.

So now it’s on to Albany for Wednesday’s 5 p.m. semifinals. Once again, the sixth-seeded Trojans will be facing a higher seed (Albany is seeded second), but using comparative scores (both teams beat Bishop O’Dowd by one, for example), it figures to be another nail-biter.

“We’re loose. There’s no pressure on us,” Coach Lucchi insisted. “We’re really excited about it. So is the school and the community, too.”

The winner will advance to the finals to face either fifth-seeded San Marin or No. 1 Alhambra of Martinez.