EL CAJON — With the sun sinking toward the horizon, Addison Suriano struck out Pressly Villalva with her 226th pitch and Eastlake High School beat top-seeded Christian 2-1 in 12 innings to win the CIF Southern California Regional Division 2 softball championship on Saturday evening.
Suriano, a junior, hugged her senior catcher, Rachel Del Busto, and the two were buried in a dogpile near the circle.
Leadoff batter Deziree Gomez singled in Mia Vasquez with the go-ahead run with one out in the 12th.
The victory completed a remarkable five days for the sixth-seeded Titans, who won at Bakersfield Christian on Tuesday and then won at Westlake on Friday, returning home at about 10:30 p.m.
“I kept asking her if she was OK and she’s like, ‘Don’t take the ball from me, I want to finish this game. We’re going to win this game,’ “ coach Jandi Diego-Superales said. .’ I asked her how much gas she had in her and she said, ‘I still have a full tank.’ She was on it. She wanted this game.”
Said Suriano: “I told her that I want this. I want this more than anything. I’ve been working so hard, this whole team has been working so hard. I can’t let up now.”
Suriano threw 122 pitches on Friday at Westlake. She wasn’t fazed by throwing 226 pitches.
“I’ve pitched more, she said, adding that she once pitched five games in a one-day tournament.
“It’s the adrenaline,” she said. “Going into every inning, it’s just crazy, the amount of effort that this whole team has put into it. It fires me up to keep going.”
Suriano got out of three bases-loaded jams, including two in the first three innings. She struck out 14 and walked 10.
“There are no words to describe that girl,” Gomez said. “She’s pitched her heart out every inning. She’s given it her all. The amount of confidence she has on that mound gives us confidence to be better and want to play better.”
Gomez grounded to second in her previous two at-bats before singling up the middle off Ava Barrios, who pitched six strong innings in relief.
“It felt so great. I was very frustrated with my last two at-bats, so I was just thinking, just put the ball in play and win it for my team at the end of the day.”
As the postgame celebration was wrapping up, the sun had set and the moon was rising to the east.
I was so relieved,” Gomez said about Suriano’s final strikeout. “There was so much pressure and I knew she could do it. She’s a great pitcher and I have so much faith in her.”
She said the dogpile “felt so good. It hurt a little bit, but it was fun.”
Gomez singled on Christian freshman ace Alyssa McCurty’s first pitch, advanced on Ryan Pham’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Mackenzie Olshenke’s double to center.
Christian’s Keels Carrizosa homered to left leading off the second.
Christian had runners on first and second with no outs in the eighth. Carrizosa dropped a bunt just in front of the plate and was tagged out, but because she retreated in trying to avoid the tag, the runners did not advance. Suriano then retired the side.
