By Rick Assad
Two softball giants took the field at Olive Park on Wednesday as Burroughs High hosted perennial power Crescenta Valley.
At stake was first place in the Pacific League and the game lived up to its lofty billing as neither team backed down and fought until the end.
After six and a half innings were contested, and on Senior Night in which three were honored – Chloe Centeno, Alyssa Morales and Valentina Clemons and longtime Burroughs coach Louie Binda was recognized for decades of work on the field and in the classroom and is set to retire, the Bears had better pitching and scored more runs and prevailed 4-2.
The Bears (17-4 and 6-0 in league) tacked on solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings to secure the win.
Centeno set the pace for Burroughs as she slapped two doubles and drove in a run while junior Karlee Earl doubled and singled and also had a run batted in.
“I think everyone did so well and it really shows all the hard work that we have been doing really shows off,” Centeno said of the team’s effort.
In the circle, sophomore Valentina Reyes was solid as the right-hander limited the Falcons to five hits over seven innings and two solo runs while striking out two and walking three.
“Valentina Reyes was super-efficient and pitched so well,” Burroughs coach Doug Nicol said. “I am so proud of her growth and development.”
Katie Taix agreed with Nicol on Reyes’ performance.
“I thought that this was a great outing for Valentina,” said the Burroughs assistant coach and pitching coach. “She and Ali [Cortez] have been such a great team on the field all year. They are only sophomores, so they have so much more room for growth. As a coaching staff, we have full confidence in the two of them. They have been fantastic.”
The first inning commenced with Morales drawing a leadoff walk off senior pitcher Carley Mulcahey, who went six frames, allowing seven hits with three strikeouts and four walks.
Earl then wallopped a run-scoring double to left-center and one batter later, Centeno hit a rocket to center field that knocked in Earl.
“I could not be more happy or proud of my girls tonight. I thought we were strong in all three phases tonight. Our defense was sensational and really shined. I thought that on offense, we didn’t chase pitches and had some really good at-bats,” Nicol noted. “Even our outs were hit hard, and we forced them to make plays.”
The Falcons (13-6 and 5-1 in league) sliced the lead in half in the third as sophomore Payton Sellers led off with a single to left and with one out senior Mila Reddy (two hits) clubbed a hard-hit sinking liner to right field that bounced off the fielder’s glove while she was diving for the ball as a run scored.
Crescenta Valley was at it again in the fourth inning as sophomore Chloe Mulcahey opened the frame with a base hit to left field.
Mulcahey stole second base, advanced to third base on a grounder by senior Megumi Ono and scored on a grounder by junior Kate Barnes that evened it at 2-2.
The deadlock was broken in the fourth as Morales cracked a run-scoring, two-out single to right field that made it 3-2.
In the following frame, freshman Kalani Miramontes bashed a one-out single to right field that plated Centeno, who led off with a double to left center.
“This was a really good team win against a very tough CV team,” Nicol offered. “I thought all of our girls shined tonight.”
Any time that Crescenta Valley and Burroughs hook up it’s always going to be hard-fought and competitive, and it was this time.
