Hollister High softball team ready to meet new season

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The season has not officially started yet, but Coach Andrew Barragan’s Hollister High softball team already knows that it’s going to be looked at as the team to beat after winning the Central Coast Section Championship last year and going on to capture the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Softball Championship in a grueling nine-inning 1-0 game against the Saint Francis Lancers.

“That was a real David and Goliath game,” Barragan said. “It was just a matter of who was going to make the first mistake, and sure enough, there was an error in that last inning that let us score the run. But winning that game put a target on our backs.”

As defending champions, the Balers will be up against the top teams in the league with, according to Barragan, one of the toughest schedules in the state of California. 

“We have Clovis High, near Fresno,” Barragan said. “We’ve got Foothill High, near Anaheim.  Then we’ve got Clovis North. The list just goes on. But it all prepares us for the playoffs because, by that time, we aren’t going to see anything that we haven’t already seen before.”

The team is going into the new season with most of its players in place, having lost only three seniors to graduation. But those three, including Sophia Mariottini, who was ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 5 nationally, will be sorely missed.

“They got us to the championship, so it is hard not having them anymore,” Barragan said. “But we just have to put all the pieces together that we have now. You can have only so much talent on the team, but they still have to gel as a family.”

With three more pre-season exhibition games just a few days away, the team is putting everything it has into practice, coming to the field every weekday, sometimes until 8 p.m., and then three hours on Saturday

“It is the effort they put in that makes them stand out,” he said. “We are all working on stuff that might seem repetitious, like leading off the bases and getting a reading on the ball. Softball is such a fast game, we have no time to blink.

Though the team is essentially intact from last year, Barragan does not expect things to be easy this season. “Everybody wants to beat up a defending champ,” he said. “Everybody wants that under their belt, so when these teams come in, they elevate their game. We can’t be sleeping on any of these teams.”

Barragan highlighted Maddie Bermudez, Grace Peffley, Dominique Oliveira and Mia Phillips as players to keep an eye on.

“Maddie Bermudez is our lead-off batter,” Barragan said. “She pretty much sets the tone for our offense. She is one of the two leaders on this team. When she gets on the bases, she’s the fastest girl out here.”  

Bermudez started playing softball when she was seven and said that calmness in the box and speed are her best qualities, but that the most important thing for her is playing as part of a team. 

“I want to be a teammate to everyone,” she said. “There are times when things are really hard, and we struggle and it’s good to have that connection.” 

Barragan said the key for Peffley is getting on base.

“Once Grace Peffley gets on base,” Barragan said, “it is amazing to watch. She’s just a high-caliber player.  

He said Oliveira acts as the nucleus of the defense.  

“Every play comes from her—every movement and every every shift,” Barragan said.  

Being loud and aggressive, Oliveira said, is her greatest strength. 

“I can see the whole field from my position,” she said, “so I can tell the girls where the runners are at and where to go. I have control, and they know they can trust me, so we can get those plays out.”

Barragan said another key player in the defense is Phillips. 

“She pretty much single-handedly saved a handful of games last year with her stellar playing,” Barragan said.

Her strengths are fielding and being able to make good, fast transfers, Phillips said, along with her softball IQ. “I think I am able to hit all parts of the field,” she said. “I can catch, and I can get the ball where I need it to be.” 

The team has always had its fair share of local support, but Barragan said he has definitely seen an uptick in attention since the championship win. 

“Everybody’s excited, and they have embraced the stadium,” he said. “They are even showing up to the scrimmages. At the last one, we had over 250 people here, and we’ve never had that many people come to a game.”

The team played Kelseyville High at the Clovis High School on March 1 for the first of the Lead-Off Classic games. The next two games, against Foothill and Clovis, will also be at Clovis High on March 2. The first league game of the season will be a home game against North Monterey County High School on March 12 at 6 p.m.

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