Sonoma Valley softball team heads to San Marin for championship game

Dragons shell-shock Drake in Tuesday's game, but meet the NCS Division 3 No. 1-ranked Marin on Saturday in Novato.|

This could be the year the Sonoma Valley High School girls softball team comes home with the crown, but they’ll have to beat one of the region’s best to do it.

They face the San Marin Mustangs in Novato this Saturday, June 3, for the NCS Division 3 softball championship. San Marin will be a tough opponent: their season record was 22-2, 15-1 in their league.

The Lady Dragons have a strong winning record too – 21-5 overall, 9-3 in the league – but their state ranking of 213, compared to San Marin’s ranking of 61, makes them the decided underdog going into Saturday’s game. Still, in NCS Division 3, San Marin is ranked No. 1, and the Dragons are No. 2, so the match is a not unexpected one.

Last Tuesday, May 30, the Dragons went on a 15-hit parade in the NCS Division 3 semifinal softball game against Drake of San Anselmo. The result was a 13-3 Sonoma Valley victory and a trip to the championship on Saturday.

The Dragons gave up three runs in the top of the first inning and weren’t able to take the lead until the third, but a series of multi-run innings produced 13 unanswered runs on 15 hits and four Drake errors, to shell-shock the Pirates.

Sonoma Valley scored two runs in the second and third innings, followed by four in the fourth, one in the fifth and another four runs in the sixth inning.

Last year the Sonoma Valley team made it to the semi-finals before losing to Acalanes at home; they were also eliminated the year before, both under coach Dean Merrill who did not return this year. New coach Keeley Ray can only hope her first year leads to an upset in the final round, and a championship for her young team.

Both of the Dragons’ all-league first-team players, Ally Alcayaga and Keliyah Hensic, are in the freshman class, which bodes well for the local softball team’s future.

Saturday’s game time is 7 p.m. at San Marin High, 15 San Marin Dr., in Novato.

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