LOWER LAKE >> If Lower Lake High School junior third baseman Azuree Meza ever wants to open a landscaping business, she should do well. That girl can rake.
Meza went 4-for-4 with a double and two RBIs on Wednesday afternoon as the Trojans beat St. Mary’s of Berkeley 5-3 in the first round of the North Coast Section Division IV softball playoffs at Lower Lake High School.
The victory moves Meza and company into the quarterfinals on Saturday against No. 1 seed Marin Catholic (21-3). First pitch is 2 p.m. at the College of Marin in Kentfield.
“It feels great,” Lower Lake coach Chris Emberson said of the playoff victory, which was among the team’s goals this season.
“It wasn’t our first goal, that was to win league and we didn’t play quite well enough against the teams (Cloverdale and Clear Lake) we needed to beat. Our second goal was to reach the playoffs and our third goal was to win in the playoffs, so we accomplished two of the three.”
Lower Lake (19-6) didn’t exactly start the game the way Emberson envisioned as the Trojans committed two errors on one play in the top of the first inning that allowed two runs to score, however, the bottom of the first couldn’t have played out any better for Emberson’s squad as Lower Lake answered with four runs on four consecutive hits to push in front to stay.
Winning pitcher Shelbie Harris took it from there and allowed just one run the rest of the way, that in the top of the sixth when the ultra-fast Janae Adams tripled to center field leading off the inning and scored moments later on teammate Taylor McCracken’s grounder. But that was it for the Panthers. Beginning with McCracken, Harris set down the final six St. Mary’s batters she faced, capping another strong effort by the senior who kept opposing batters off balance all day with a mixture of fastballs and devastating changeups.
“Her changeup the last three weeks has been awesome,” Emberson said. “She really has control of it now, something she struggled with before. She doesn’t have to try and blow the ball by everyone now … she’s become a pitcher. The changeup solidifies you in softball.”
Harris allowed just four hits, struck out eight, walked none and hit one. Her counterpart, Janai Denard, didn’t fare nearly as well. Denard faced just six batters and didn’t retire a single one although she should have when Emma Diener popped up to the catcher in fair territory to open the Lower Lake first. Bella Garcia dropped it for an error. Harris followed by hitting a sharp grounder to shortstop Rae Garcia, who tried unsuccessfully to force Diener at second base. Ashlynn Mock singled sharply into right field to load the bases for Meza, who drilled a single into left field to score the Trojans’ first run. Kristen Celli followed with a two-run single to center field give Lower Lake a 3-2 lead and Destiny Apodaca made it 4-2 with a double into the right-center field gap, Celli stopping at third base.
St. Mary’s made a pitching change at that point and Sarah Stenger came on to toss six innings of quality relief. She worked out of the jam she inherited in the bottom of the first, stranding both Celli and Apodaca on base, and shut out the Trojans until Meza doubled to the base of the center-field fence in the bottom of the sixth to drive in courtesy runner Skylar Watson from second base. Meza’s double, which made it a 5-3 game, missed being a two-run homer by just a few feet.
“She’s been struggling a lit bit of late so for her to come out of it today with all those hits was great,” Emberson said.
The Trojans finished with 11 hits scattered among seven starters. Meza and Harris (2-for-4) were the only players with multiple hits. Lower Lake nearly had a dozen hits but Mock, Lake County’s hits leader, was thrown out by St. Mary’s right fielder Georgia Hayter in the bottom of the fourth inning after smacking a hard shot that Hayter fielded on a bounce and came up throwing to first baseman McCracken. The ball arrived in plenty of time to beat a surprised Mock.
Lower Lake’s opponent on Saturday, Marin Catholic, is the Marin County Athletic League champion.
“They’re the No. 1 seed, so all the pressure is on them,” Emberson said of the Wildcats. “When Shelbie pitches like she did today and we compete like we did today, we can hang with just about anybody. We’re the underdog so all we need to do is go down there and compete.”
