The Manteca Buffaloes dropped their opening Valley Oak League softball matchup on the season Wednesday afternoon, falling 12-9 to the first-year league members Patterson.
The Buffaloes (0-1, 5-2) started slow offensively and saw themselves down 12-3 going into the top of the seventh inning. The first six batters in the seventh scored for Manteca, the rally highlighted by a towering fly ball into the wind off the right field wall that on any other day would have been a home run by junior first baseman Jocelyn Baptist.
Baptist would come back up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs down 12-9. She hit a hard ground ball to the Patterson shortstop Elizabeth Zavala whose throw was low. The ball appeared to fall out of the first baseman’s glove but the call on the field was out to end the game.
“I am proud of how our girls battled late,” Manteca coach Josh Farris said. “We told them all week long that Patterson is a good team and they could hit and they showed it in this game.”
Patterson (1-1,7-6-2) racked up 16 hits in the game. Howard University commit Jazmine Isom had two hits and reached base a total of four times, scoring twice. Zavala contributed four hits and three runs batted in herself. Desirrei Sorci, who pitched the first six innings for the Tigers helped her own cause with four hits of her own.
“Desirrei played a great all around game today,” Patterson coach Jennifer Hamm said. “Shes been our go to girl in the circle all season long but she really helped herself and us out at the plate today as well.”
Sorci limited the damage from the Buffaloes to just six hits through the first six innings while striking out three, no small feat against a Manteca lineup that had scored 42 runs in their previous three games coming into the contest.
“Offensively we left some runners on,” Farris said. “Some of our best hitters didn’t really get going until late, but this is a game we can learn from and get better. The VOL is too tough to be worried about one game.”
Riley Ward, Maleiah Garza, Na’ima Calderon, and Baptist led the Buffaloes offensively with two hits each. Baptist and Garza drove in two runs apiece.
Isabel Tonna started the game in the circle for Manteca, allowing six earned runs in five innings of work, settling in after allowing three runs in the opening frame. She finished her outing with four strikeouts.
Up next for Manteca is a trip across town to rival East Union, who started 0-1 in league play themselves after a 3-0 loss at Mountain House this week.
“Tonight’s result aside, hopefully our girls don’t need any additional motivation for East Union,” Farris said. “We’ve played some tough games against them in recent years. We went on a run beating them five or six in a row, but then they got us last year.”
First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. under the lights at Northgate Softball Complex on Tuesday.
