Prep softball: Everett keys late rally as San Rafael tops Marin Catholic

First-year San Rafael High softball coach Mark Everett has a not-so-secret weapon: his daughter.

Sophomore shortstop Sophia Everett scored the first run of the day against Marin Catholic. Then in the top of the seventh inning, she drilled a ball through the Wildcats’ second baseman to trigger the Bulldogs’ five-run seventh inning for a 6-2 MCAL victory on Thursday at San Rafael.

It was hard to tell who was most excited after San Rafael’s come-from-behind victory — the league’s newest head coach or one of Marin’s elite players.

“To come out and put one run up in the first inning and not get anything until the seventh inning and then pull off a win against a team I don’t think we’ve beaten in 15 years, this was great,” said coach Everett. “It’s been a very long time since we’ve beaten them.”

Marin Catholic, playing its first MCAL game, was missing four seniors who were attending a retreat. That didn’t stop the Wildcats (3-1, 0-1 MCAL) from mounting a comeback that would stand against most teams.

San Rafael (2-2, 2-0) carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning — MC was the home team in this game. The Wildcats rallied for a pair of runs on an RBI single by Bella Ferrety and a fly out to deep left field by Grace Berringer.

In the top of the seventh, trailing by a run, the Bulldogs’ Cassidy Kaplan singled to center field and Karen Vela walked before Marin Catholic sophomore ace Selena Pena got two strikeouts. That brought Everett to the plate and her smack was too hot to handle sending Kaplan home for a 2-2 ballgame.

“I knew all I had to do was put it in play — hit it hard,” Sophia Everett said. “Just make the defense work and ultimately get the run around. I feel like a leader on this team. I felt like I had to get this hit and lead the team to the win.”

The Bulldogs kept the runs coming thanks to three consecutive hits by Megan Murphy, Thomara Drummer and Angel Amesa. The blast by Amesa was nearly a homer but she settled for a triple.

Down to their final out against a team that was dominated them for years, the Bulldogs may have surprised themselves with the way they fought back and blew the game open,

“I was so surprised,” Sophia Everett said. “I did not think that was going to be the way we would pull it off.”

Drummer earned the win by scattering four hits with nine strikeouts. The 5-foot-10 sophomore struck out the first two batters she faced in the bottom of the seventh and then induced a groundout to seal the win.

The Wildcats’ Pena was spectacular and only allowed four hits until the top of the seventh. She finished with 10 strikeouts.

“I honestly thought we were going to get them,” Marin Catholic coach David Albini said. “I thought we had done enough to win the game. They’re a really good team. They’re the defending North Coast Section Division III champions. We have to do better at the plate.”