The Santa Clara Sparks 12U tournament softball squad spent the July 19-20 weekend at the California State Games in San Diego, where the team soared nearly to the mountain top. While the Sparks technically finished in the middle of the pack of the 11-team field, its only two losses came against the two teams that finished in first and second.
Among the standout Sparks were Maddy Rius, who pitched a complete-game victory over Five Cities, and Sloane Dailey, who had a four-hit game. However, it was the depth of the team that really stood out.
In Rius’ complete-game win, she only struck out one batter. She kept a low pitch count, just 80 pitches to get the job done, letting the defense behind her shine in support.
“She was super efficient. She only threw 80 pitches; 57 of them were strikes,” remarked Sparks Manager Ryan Holleman. “As much as she was great in the circle, it wasn’t like she went out there and struck everyone out. They put the ball in play and our defense made the plays. We won with a team effort and contributions all over the field.”
“I feel confident in throwing strikes that the opposing hitters can hit, because our defense can make good plays behind me,” noted Rius on her attitude in the pitcher’s circle. “I really like how Rose [Ostrander] gives me confidence, the way she calls pitches, too.”
Further adding to the team performance is the fact that it wasn’t just the regular starters shining for the Sparks. While Rius and Ostrander were tremendous batterymates, both Ostrander and Holleman were quick to highlight Sami Gargiulo, who earned more and more playing time as the tournament progressed.
“Sami did really well this tournament. She made two really good catches,” chimed Ostrander, who was one of two players who had been to San Diego before, the other being Alyssa Collins. “She also hit a really good double.”
“Some of our players who traditionally have not been starters for us got an opportunity and rose to the occasion. Sami was one of those,” noted Holleman. “She works her butt off, but has not had the most opportunities on the field and she got some opportunities in this tournament and certainly took advantage of it.”
Overall, the girls seemed more than pleased with their performance in the summer’s culminating tournament.
“I feel like it went pretty great after our first game,” responded Collins. “We were kinda nervous to be there at first, but after the first game went pretty well, we were all excited, hyped and picked each other up. Everything was pretty good from there.”
“I think we all played pretty great,” added Dailey. “Playing softball is much easier when we all trust each other and I feel like that helped us succeed.”
Holleman also expressed just how proud he was of this group of girls.
“We were able to get every girl opportunities in this tournament, everyone got a chance to play and we talked about it in our last post-game speech, everyone on the roster at some point in this tournament, all fourteen of them had some kind of a highlight moment.”
Rounding out the Sparks roster for this tournament were Adelina Mendoza, Alina Murillo, Cynthia Campbell, Ellie Flora, Genevieve Gabriel, Karli Holleman, Olivia Luera,Vini Suarez and Maya Rosa.
Congratulations on a sparkling summer season, Sparks!
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