The California Lady Pintos softball team had been waiting for Oct. 12, the date that marked the start of the postseason.
California was the No. 6 seed in the Class 3 District 4 Tournament and was cast in the role of underdogs against the Father Tolton Lady Trailblazers, who won a state title in 2020.
In the game, California's defense held tough against the surging offense of Father Tolton, but Lady Trailblazer pitcher Kate Guinn couldn't be stopped. Guinn threw a perfect game against the Lady Pintos to lead Tolton to a 4-0 victory that ended California's season.
The game was originally scheduled to be played at Centralia. However, because of wet field conditions from a thunderstorm earlier in the day, the location of the game was changed to Southern Boone High School in Ashland.
California coach Steven Stock put senior Gabby Rohrbach in the pitcher's circle to go up against Guinn.
In the bottom of the first inning, Rohrbach retired the first two batters and looked to keep the game scoreless against a Tolton team that had averaged seven runs per game. However, junior shortstop Madison Uptegrove put a halt to California's plans by hitting a solo home run to right-center field to give the Lady Trailblazers a 1-0 lead.
In the next three innings, Guinn struck out eight of nine California batters and forced the Lady Pintos into a swing-and-miss on 20 pitches. Stock said Guinn's biggest strength in the game was the way she put the spin on the ball and didn't have to throw the ball hard to get strikeouts.
"She's not an overpowering pitcher, but boy, she spins it well off her hand," Stock said. "For somebody who moves the ball as well as she does, it just makes it tough for us. We've got some very good hitters and for her to blank us like that, it's a testament to the high-level pitcher that she is."
But the Lady Pintos were not deterred and used their own defense to stay in the game, which was spearheaded by Rohrbach and freshman third baseman Peyton Dunham, who made two line drive catches for outs in the third and fourth innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, with the score still 1-0, Tolton had runners on first and second base, but California had two outs. Next up to bat for the Lady Trailblazers was sophomore center fielder Sadie Sexauer. Rohrbach had a 2-1 count against Sexauer, but she drove the next pitch to deep right field for a three-run home run to blow the game open for Tolton.
Despite California's best efforts to finally get a ball past Guinn and the infield, Tolton's defense refused to yield in the sixth and seventh innings.
California ended its season with a final record of 14-12. Tolton went on to win the district title, defeating Centralia 7-0 in the championship game
"First of all, I'm proud of our kids, Stock said. "We came over here and probably about 95 percent of the people in this ballpark didn't think that we could compete with this team and we made two pitches that, to their credit, they hit a long way and got them over the fence. However, I'm still very proud of our girls. We threw the ball over the plate, we played defense behind Gabby, we kept ourselves in the game.
"Guinn deserves all the credit in the world, a no-hitter and a perfect game for her. She pretty much blanked us at the plate. It's a tough way to go, but it's like a told the girls, only one team wins their last game. I'm proud of our girls. They had a great season."
Stock said California's seven seniors left a lasting impact on him and the softball program.
"It's a great group of kids, softball players are awesome to be around and even more awesome to coach," Stock said. "More importantly, it's a great group of young ladies and young adults. It's just an honor to be around them and the class that they are a part of. I told them after the game that there were times I wanted to just step on their toes, but it's been a honor to coach them. They've represented this school as this team so well.
"Coming into this year, we knew that Gabby would throw it over the plate any time she was on the mound. What it came down to was getting ahead and doing what we needed to do to stay ahead. Gabby did fantastic for us this year. I think she won 10 or 11 games for us and she just did what we needed to do. Put the ball over the strike zone and let our defense play behind her and our defense did exactly that. Our defense played really well. Sometimes you want 20 or 25 wins, but sometimes you get a group with this much heart and 14 wins tells you a lot about the team we had."
The California Lady Pintos end the 2022 season with a record of 14-12. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior Ella Percival steps up to the plate for the final at-bat of her high school career. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior Gabrielle Rohrbach high-fives freshman Peyton Dunham after the latter makes a line-drive catch to end the fourth inning. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Senior center fielder Lanie Holtsclaw makes a catch for an out in the second inning. (Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)