The Merced High softball team has all the pieces to make a run at a second consecutive Central California Conference championship. The most important piece is the right arm of ace Annalise Ramirez. The Bears star has helped Merced start their repeat bid with a 2-0 first week with wins over Los Banos and Golden Valley.

 

On Tuesday, Ramirez threw eight shutout innings, striking out 16 Tigers in a 1-0 victory. The Cal State Monterey Bay-bound senior followed that up with four hitless innings in an 18-0 win over the Cougars on Thursday.

“It’s been amazing having a pitcher like her the past four years,” said Merced coach Jennifer Moreno, whose team improved to 10-1 this season and is tied atop the CCC with Atwater and Buhach Colony at 2-0. “She’s a once in a generation talent. I don’t have any worry when she’s on the mound. I trust everything that she’s going to do.”

 

Ramirez struck out the final eight batters she faced against Golden Valley and finished with nine strikeouts. She combined with Abigail Rosas on a no-hitter. Ramirez is now 8-1 this season and leads the Sac-Joaquin Section with a 0.34 ERA. She’s surrendered just three earned runs and 22 hits in 62 innings pitched. Her 103 strikeouts rank No. 6 in the section.

 

In her first two CCC starts, Ramirez racked up 25 strikeouts, gave up zero runs and just one hit in 12 innings pitched. “It was really big,” Ramirez said. “I’m really proud of my team. I’m so glad we started off with two wins.”

Ramirez dominated the Golden Valley bats with her arsenal of pitches that include a fastball, curveball, screwball, riseball and changeup. Ramirez says she can tell just by a feeling when she’s on and ready to have a good game in the circle. “I don’t know how to explain it,” she said. “It’s just a feeling I get when I’m on. If I’m not feeling it early, I’ll usually throw more pitches until I feel it.”

 

After scratching out just three hits and one run on Tuesday against Los Banos, the Bears’ bats exploded for 15 hits and 18 runs against Golden Valley. Rosa led the offensive barrage with a double, triple, three runs scored and three RBIs. Ava Waldron, Ramirez, Mariah Higareda, Alexis Schwalm, Madison Cabral and Macey Saucedo all had two hits for the Bears with Saucedo adding three runs and three stolen bases.

“We just need to hold up to all the effort we put in at practice,” Moreno said. “We have to put the ball in play, be crazy in the dugout, it’s their personalities that is going to push them over the edge. Tuesday was a tough one. Today is what they’re capable of. We weren’t seeing the ball well on Tuesday so we challenged them yesterday at practice. We told them we’re going to see another good pitcher, let’s show what you can do. They did a great job today.”

 

Ramirez says they just need to keep doing what they’ve been doing to work toward another CCC championship. “We need to continue to practice like we have been and keep the energy high,” Ramirez said. “We can’t let the little mistakes get to us. Our work ethic has been good and as long as we keep that up we will continue to do well.”

Buhach Colony 6, El Capitan 3 – Aubrey Trindade homered and Madysen Leard pitched six innings to help lead the Thunder past the Gauchos to improve to 11-7 overall and 2-0 in the CCC. Emma Derichsweiler collected two hits and scored a run for El Capitan (8-4 overall, 0-2 CCC).

 

Atwater 13, Los Banos 0 – Kennedy Ross led the Falcons’ 11-hit attack with two hits and four RBIs to help Atwater improve to 9-5 overall and 2-0 in the CCC on Wednesday afternoon. Madi Hiler and Riley Leonardo added two hits and two runs each and Hanalei Romo collected two hits and two RBIs for Atwater. Kylie Medina pitched five shutout innings, striking out seven for the victory.

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.