PREP SOFTBALL: Pride's season ends at Mountain View

Two and out.

The Mountain Pointe High School softball team’s season came to end Tuesday with a 4-1 loss at Mesa Mountain View. It was just the Pride’s second game of the double-elimination, Class 5A-Division I playoffs.

But rather than tears and frustration, the Pride mostly exhibited satisfaction after playing one of its most sound games in weeks despite the loss.

“We played hard, we did our game on defense, and we actually hit the ball this game,” Pride coach Mel Wendell said.

“It was a tough loss, but it was a good loss. It wasn’t one of those bad ones where it wasn’t our team. But we played like we had pride today and that’s what we really enforce with the girls. I was very proud of them.”

The Pride broke a scoreless tie in the third inning. Arielle Cano first got on with a single before being sent back to the dugout on a fielder’s choice by Chrystine Bohman.

Bohman later stole second before Tiana Chavez belted a ball up the middle of the infield. The hit was bobbled by Mountain View, which recorded an error on the play, and Bohman was

able to reach home.

Pride pitcher Lauren Stephan then continued to fool batters. The Mountain Pointe senior had a perfect game going through the initial five innings. Wendell called the effort one of Stephan’s best games all season.

But Mountain View found its offense in the sixth as it pieced together three hits, a walk and took advantage of a Mountain Pointe error to notch four runs in the sixth inning.

The Pride loaded the bases in the seventh inning on singles by Stephan, Dee Morgan and a Mountain View error, but failed to score a run.

“I think it was one of our best games in the past few weeks,” Mountain Pointe senior catcher Cami Carrera said. “Yeah we lost, but we really did play our game and that’s what matters right now. We ended on a good note - that’s something all the girls can carry on for next year.”

Mountain Pointe began the year winning its initial four games, but the season slowly went downhill after a myriad of injuries to various players. During some games, the Pride were without as many as five regular players.

The team lost 13 of its last 16 games to end the year, but still was able to finish the regular season with a better record than last year at 16-15.

“We weren’t used to the injuries that came up, and we weren’t ready for them,” Carrera said. “That really got us down and we weren’t able to get past that as well as we should have. But you can’t do anything about it, because once an injury happens you just have to let it go and hope they get better soon.

Carrera will play college ball next season at Texas-El Paso. She added she was happy with the season, all things considered.

“To end my senior year, of course I wanted to go a little further, but I loved everything about this season,” she said. “As a team, we really grew and matured on and off the field, so that was a big thing. I’m going to be checking up on the young girls every week next season.”

With the loss, the Pride bid farewell to five seniors, including Stephan, Carrera, Morgan, Somer Fox and Emilia Gonzales. It was essentially the first class of departing seniors for Wendell, who is in her second year at the team’s helm. Last season, the Pride only had one senior on its roster to end the year.

“We had a lot of leadership this year because of our seniors,” Wendell said. “They’ve been in the state playoffs three years in a row.

“This wasn’t a bad year; definitely better than last year. That’s what we’re looking to do every year is to improve on the year before. Maybe it wasn’t what we wanted at the end, but we did our job. We came out today like we did at the beginning of the year, which was nice to see the girls do.”

--Christopher Drexel can be reached at (480) 898-4906 or cdrexel@aztrib.com.