T-Girls’ playoff stay brief

The Petaluma High softball season came to an end with an 11-1 loss to Rancho Cotate in the first round of the North Coast Section playoffs.|

The Petaluma High softball team’s stay in the North Coast Section playoffs was short and not very sweet.

Petaluma’s T-Girls were beaten in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs at Rancho Cotate on Tuesday afternoon, 11-0, and they didn’t even get to play one full game. The powerful Lady Cougars ended the contest via the 10-run rule after just 4½ innings.

It was just a case of the better team playing well, while the T-Girls did not have their best game of the season.

“They are a good team,” said Petaluma coach Kurt Jastrow. “They have a good chance of making it all the way, but we didn’t come to play.”

Two of Petaluma’s first-inning batters struck out and the third grounded out. Rancho Cotate’s first batter, pitcher Kaitlyn Hager, hit a home run over the right-field fence.

It was that kind of game.

Rancho Cotate had 11 hits in just four innings, but T-Girl pitchers Jaden Krist and Ava Chabot had to face extra batters because of key Petaluma infield errors that could have softened the impact of Rancho Cotate rallies in the first, second and third frames.

One of the bright spots for Petaluma was the aggressive approach of T-Girl batters against Rancho pitchers Hager and Taylor Proctor, two of the best in the area.

Petaluma had just four hits but managed to put runners on base in four of its five batting chances.

Indya Smith beat out an infield single and Kaleigh Weiand was safe on an error to put runners at second and third for the T-Girls in the second, but Hager reached back for two strikeouts to end the threat.

Brooke Symons and Chandler Mevis singled back-to-back in the third, but both were stranded on a bouncer and a pop-up.

Weiand slapped a single in the fourth but couldn’t move into scoring position.

Petaluma had one last chance to count in the fifth when Ashley Ayers was safe on an error and moved all the way to third, where she was stranded as the final two T-Girl batters of the season went down on ground outs.

Right fielder Weiand made a nice running catch near the fence and Ayers was a stalwart behind the plate for Petaluma.

Brittany Scardina was the best of a list of Rancho Cotate hitters with a 3-for-3 game that included three RBIs and two runs scored. Hagar had a single to go with her leadoff homer and scored three runs.

Petaluma finished the season with a 16-10-1 record that included a 10-2 second-place finish in the Sonoma County League.

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