Champs! Willow Glen’s McKenna Campbell hits walk-off double in NorCal D-II final

SAN JOSE — What a way to cap off a high school career, walking off a NorCal championship.
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Willow Glen senior catcher McKenna Campbell jumped on the first pitch she saw in the bottom of the seventh inning and drilled it to left field, scoring Katelynn Dilbeck from first base with the winning run in a 6-5 victory over Notre Dame-Salinas for the Northern California Division II regional softball championship.

“It’s been our goal since freshman year,” an emotional Campbell said, apologizing as she struggled to regain her composure. “We worked so hard and it’s just a dream come true.”

It was the second double of the game for Campbell, who will play college softball at Miami of Ohio. She also hit a double and scored the only run in a 1-0 win over Bullard-Fresno in the NorCal semifinals.

“She’s come up clutch these last couple of games,” Willow Glen coach Don Spingola said. “She’s a leader on the field, a leader at practice.”

Notre Dame-Salinas (22-8) had taken a 2-0 lead in the third inning before a five-run explosion by Willow Glen (23-7) in the fourth. Campbell led it off with her first double of the game. She scored on Aleki Ulu’s double. A triple by Haley Ocumen tied the score.

The Rams weren’t done. After Ocumen was tagged out at home on an attempted squeeze play, Cianna Miranda extended the inning with a single. Then No. 9 hitter Lea Crawford, a freshman, hit a shot off the Notre Dame third baseman’s glove. The ball rolled down the left-field line in foul territory as two runners scored to put the Rams up 4-2. Faamaai Ulu singled home Crawford for the fifth run of the inning.

The Spirits came right back. Spingola had ordered intentional walks of Notre Dame shortstop Addison Amaral, a Notre Dame University (the one in South Bend) commit, her first two times to the plate. With a three-run lead and two out he pitched to her and she homered to center to make it 5-3.

That ignited the Spirits. They scored two more runs in the inning before the third out was recorded to tie the game at 5-5.

Notre Dame got a two-out double in the sixth and Spingola ordered intentional passes to both Amaral and JulieAnn Lopez, who had homered in the third, to load the bases. Willow Glen pitcher Alanna Clincy got out of the tension-packed jam by inducing the next batter to foul out to third base.

Clincy also pitched out of a two-on, one-out situation in the top of the seventh, retiring the next two batters on a strikeout and a pop out.

That set the stage for some dramatics. After one was out in the bottom of the seventh, Dilbeck singled to center. Then Campbell ripped the first pitch she saw by the left fielder, scoring Dilbeck and setting off the celebration.

Clincy, who had not allowed a run in Willow Glen’s two previous NorCal playoff games, had to battle to get through this one. She gave up six hits, struck out 11 and walked nine, four intentionally.

“She threw a lot of pitches and thank God for the activity at the end because she was done, we were going to have to swap pitchers if the game went on,” Spingola said. “She was tired. She pitched three games this week, probably threw around 300 pitches and that was something she hadn’t done yet. She’s a freshman and I expect big things from her in the years to come.”

Clincy finished her freshman season 12-3 with a 1.93 ERA, 56 hits allowed in 112 ⅔ innings and 185 strikeouts. And she was the winning pitcher in all three NorCal games.

“It feels really good,” Clincy said. “I’m just really proud of everyone.”