Agoura softball beats Charter Oak on a walk-off triple to earn trip to CIF-SS semifinals
AGOURA HILLS — Agoura softball player Jordy Charash shook off an error from earlier in the game to hit a walk-off triple on Thursday afternoon to secure a 9-8 win over Charter Oak and send the host team to the CIF Southern Section Division 3 semifinals.
“I was really overwhelmed,” Charash said. “When I missed the play at second, I thought I lost us the whole game. But then once I hit that ball, I felt really good. It felt really, really amazing.”
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Charash laced the ball down the third baseline line before it took a bounce off the fence to render it nearly impossible for an outfielder to catch up to it quickly. Mia Gomez, who was intentionally walked, got the signal from her coach and bolted home to score the run that gave Agoura coach Chance Redmond the first quarterfinal win of his 20-year career at the school.
Agoura (14-7) will host ML King of Riverside on Saturday at 3:15 in the semifinal game.
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Agoura had to fight to apply pressure for most of the game after Charter Oak (19-3-1) took a 3-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Deana Moreno scored on a passed ball and Mikayla Diebert drove in two runs with a single.
Emily Brown’s RBI single got Agoura on the board in the bottom of the frame and Agoura continuously loaded up the bases in the third inning to take a 6-3 lead.
Gomez scored on a passed ball and Amaya Del Olmo and Jayden Pollon both hit RBI singles. Claire Heisinger, the final hitter in Agoura’s batting order, cracked a two-run single to close out the inning’s offensive efforts.
“What I liked the most was that they didn’t seem worried,” Redmond said. “We went down three. The pitcher (freshman Leila Diebert) was throwing super hard. Like I don’t think we’ve seen 64 miles — that’s what our gun was saying — she was throwing 64 miles per hour.”
Charter Oak tied the game in the fourth inning with an RBI double from Shae McMorrow and a two-run single from Diebert. Agoura regained the advantage when Gomez hit a solo home run in the bottom of the inning.
“My approach was ‘take good pitches, take good hacks,’” Gomez said. “And I was paying attention to my dugout. I always tell them to be relaxed, so I always remember to take my own advice before tell other people.”
Errors on routine plays allowed Charter Oak to score two runs in the fifth inning and gain a 8-7 edge, but Auriela Ehry scored on Del Olmo’s single to allow Agoura to make up some ground and set up Charash for her game-winning hit.
Diebert pitched a complete game for Charter Oak, the Valle Vista League champion, despite coming down with a cold a day before the game.
There were no seniors on Charter Oak’s team this season and head coach Stacy Natividad expects all of her players to return next season.
“It’s hard,” Natividad said. “The tears are flowing and it’s hard to see them upset, but we’re only gonna get stronger and being that we still have next year, we’ll be back.”
Other scores from Thursday
Liberty 20, Grace 1
Viewpoint 1, Mayfield 0
Valley Christian 2, Providence 0
Pacifica 13, Oaks Christian 2
Chaminade 6, Mira Costa 1
Paraclete 9, La Quinta 3