RIPON – Ripon’s most valiant effort to extend its 2012 season fell a run short, as the Indians mounted a ferocious, seventh inning rally only to drop the Trans Valley League finale 9-8 to the Orestimba Warriors with the tying run on third.

Ripon (6-6, 16-8) needed a victory over the Warriors to nab the TVL’s No. 3 playoff spot, but were haunted by two big Orestimba innings that ultimately ended the Indians season. Orestimba put together a four run third and a three-run sixth to provide the difference.

Ripon entered the final frame trailing 9-4, but opened the seventh with a base hit from Nicole Kaiser, a double from Taylor Vernon, setting up a three-run homer from Breana Gall to chop the deficit to two runs. Vernon also hit a two-run home run in the fifth.

“We knew we had the top of the lineup coming up, so I told them to just relax because we’ve been hitting the ball well,” Ripon head coach Robert Vernon said. “All we needed to do was string a few hits together and we got that from the middle of our lineup.”

Ripon refused to give up on its postseason hopes, collecting back-to-back hits from Morgan Ormonde and Mackenzie Gaudin to plate another Ripon run for a 9-8 score. A tough catch on a sinking line drive would end Ripon’s hopes.

“We chatted about not hanging our heads because we left it on the field,” Vernon said. “We put together a good game, we didn’t panic and we kept plugging away at it. We have to experience games like that to know how it feels to be in pressure situations like that; it’s a learning process.

“The girls sure deserved a win there, but we didn’t get it.”

The Indians continued an upward trend in the season’s win total column, going from 12-13 two seasons ago, to 13-13 last year to the highest win total in Vernon’s tenure at Ripon. The Indians also swept Escalon, Riverbank and Modesto Christian for the first time in Vernon’s TVL history. Ripon was trying to land a postseason berth for the first time since 1997.