West Park defeats Woodcreek in Division II

Two Roseville softball teams battled it out in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II winner-take-all playoff game Wednesday. West Park (16-4), the home team and No. 8 seed, battled Woodcreek (16-11), the No. 9 seed, and the Panthers earned the hard-fought 4-2 victory to advance to the second round of the playoffs, while Woodcreek's season came to an end. Emma Juarez pitched a great game for the Panthers, allowing only two runs in the sixth inning. Juarez only allowed Woodcreek four hits and the only inning in which a Woodcreek runner advanced to second base was in the sixth. "Emma was awesome," West Park coach Hailey Stockman said. "She has pitched well for us all year long. A lot of people don't know that she's been battling a hurt hip as well. She balled today; she owned them." Woodcreek's only runs came on singles from Sophia Alvarez and Aubrey Reddell, who then moved up to third base and second, respectively, before both scored on consecutive sacrifice flies hit by Emily Cser and Camryn Kelley. West Park opened the scoring in the bottom of the third inning when Jolene White hit a one-out single, moved to second on a groundout and then scored on an error from Kelley at first base. Two innings later in the fifth inning West Park took a 4-0 lead. With one out, Vivianna Martinez was safe on an error by Chloe Pruess, and scored on White's single, her 101st hit of her career. Ariana Bissing followed with a triple to score White and then Bissing came in on Katie Barber's hit. "Jolene got her 101st hit today which is cool," Stockman said. "They (the top of the order) are all producing and they feed off one another and that energy helps us." West Park will travel to No. 1 seed Tracy on Friday. "The girls are coming together and playing like a family and that's what we've been focusing on all season," Stockman said. "They've got to support each other during the highs and the lows. Even if we had a couple of lows today, they were supporting each other. They just stayed on their game and didn't let up. What I'm most proud of is that they came out here and they showed up for each other." It was a disappointing loss for the Timberwolves. "We made some adjustments, but we were a little too late," Woodcreek coach Gary Ibarra said. "We played together and well for most of the game, but we just couldn't make the adjustment earlier enough in the game to get some runs ahead of time and put some pressure on them. "We're going to miss our seniors. Some have been here for four years and they're a part of our culture and that's going to be missed. We're going to miss them." In other playoff action in Division IV, No. 7 seed Roseville beat 10th-seeded Lindhurst 11-1. The Tigers (15-11-2) advance to the second round on Friday where they will travel to No. 2 seed Central Catholic. Roseville scored four runs in the third inning, four runs in the fourth and three in the fifth. Carly Currie-Silhanek had a double and two RBIs to lead Roseville. Kayla Robles also had two hits, scored twice and knocked in a run, while McKenna Patterson had two hits and scored a run and also drove in a run. Pitcher Isabella Senini allowed a run on two hits and struck out 10. Oakmont (14-14), the No. 12 seed, lost to fifth-seeded Wood 4-1. Wood scored two runs apiece in the fourth and sixth innings to take a 4-0 lead. In the seventh inning, Oakmont's Sydney Creel tripled and scored on Lilly Brand's groundout. In Division VII, Valley Christian (1-10), the 15th seed in the playoffs, lost to No. 2 seed Elliot Christian (9-3) 15-5 in six innings.