Villamar puts Valley on brink of league title

Lorena Villamar was down to her last chance to win a Northeast League softball title.

Valley’s senior pitcher had watched her team come up short and watched Las Vegas capture the league crown in each of her first three seasons.

On Monday, Villamar  put her team one win away from a title it has never won.

Villamar went 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs, and she pitched a complete game to lead visiting Valley past the six-time defending Northeast League champion Wildcats, 6-2. Valley (11-7, 9-0) has a two-game lead and the tiebreaker over second-place Las Vegas (11-8, 7-2), with three games to play.

A win by Valley in any of its remaining three league games gives the school its first softball league title.

“It feels great,” Villamar said. “I’ve put in a lot of time and a lot of hard work.”

Villamar doubled and scored in the third and fourth innings as the Vikings erased a 1-0 deficit with three runs in each inning.

“I was just pretending it was the College World Series and I needed to get those runs in,” Villamar said.

Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters Mickayla Romero, Villamar and Zoe Galindo were 6-for-6 with five runs and four RBIs in those two innings.

Meanwhile, Villamar did a beautiful job of pitching to her defense.

Villamar didn’t walk or strike out a batter Monday. Instead, Valley’s defense recorded all 21 outs without committing an error.

“We’ve become a good defensive team,” Valley coach Leslie Samson said. “They realize they’re a team now, and it doesn’t all have to fall on one person’s shoulders.”

Las Vegas, though, didn’t go down without a fight.

Even after lining into a double play in the seventh inning, the Wildcats loaded the bases and brought the potential tying run to the plate.

Second baseman Nicole Suarez snared a line drive off the bat of Tiffani Taylor to end the game.

“They’re starting to believe they can be better than they’ve been,” Samson said. “It’s been a process, but they’re absolutely believing it now.”

Monique Hernandez, Brianna Guzman and Hayli Rochell each had two hits for the Wildcats.