Any loss to end the season is a heartbreaking one. But I thought the Soquel High softball team handled Saturday’s 5-3 defeat to Santa Catalina with about as much maturity as possible.
They were disappointed, of course. But they also realized they played well against a team that had lost once all season.
On top of that, they focused on the season as a whole, and not just what took place Saturday. They were Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tri-champions, and despite falling in 4 of their last 8 games of the regular season, the Knights won back-to-back games to reach the CCS championship for the first time in school history.
They are just the sixth team from Santa Cruz County to reach the title game, joining Watsonville (2000, 2006), Monte Vista Christian (1989, 1998) and San Lorenzo Valley (1984).
Soquel opted to focus on that Saturday.
“It’s hard to realize that it’s my last year,” Soquel senior center fielder Annalise Bryant said. “But I couldn’t imagine a beter way for it to end.”
