Taft sweeps JV, Varsity city softball titles

By Dominic Scianna

To say that head coach Germaine Padilla and his Taft High School girls fast-pitch softball programs on the junior varsity and varsity levels are prospering would be an understatement. The Eagles have become the present-day Chicago Public League (CPL) standard bearers for championship hardware in the sport.

Padilla’s program won its third CPL city title in this, his 9th season. On Wednesday, May 13, he tied legendary Taft softball coach Frank Hood for the honors. In Padilla’s most recent championship victory at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s (UIC) Flames Field, the Eagles gutted out a 2-1 victory over Amundsen High School before a raucous crowd of close to 500 fans in attendance.

“I talk to my players about chasing greatness all the time,” said an emotional Padilla. “That’s our motto. That’s something I try to instill in my players and everything that we do (in this program) revolves around striving for that excellence.”

The championship battle came down to the heroics of Taft senior pitcher Michaela Power (Northern Illinois University commit), who struck out nine batters and allowed just five hits and only one earned run over seven innings to earn the victory.

The Eagles (21-5) finished off an undefeated CPL season by hanging on in the top of the seventh.

The Vikings threatened behind senior catcher and UIC commit Ashley Ellevog, but Power pitched around Ellevog (1-for-2, two walks) in the deciding frame by walking her, and with two outs and two on, got a ground ball out to set off a wild celebration.

“Ashley’s a really good hitter and I wanted to try and get her to chase (pitches) or minimize the damage (by walking her),” said Power. “I’ve known coach (Padilla) since sixth grade and he’s always had confidence in me, especially pitching in these tight games.”

Padilla knew his ace would come through in the clutch but it was going to be a dogfight against a formidable Vikings squad.

“From the moment I met Michaela and eventually knew she was going to Taft, I just wanted her to be in this moment her senior year,” admitted Padilla. “I told her the city championship is yours this year. It’s great to see because she’s grown as a senior leader, and today she did what great leaders do, and got us this championship win.”

Taft was led offensively by sophomore Avelese Cruz, who had the winning RBI and went 1-for-2 on the day, along with junior Jaida Matos, who had a sacrifice fly and an RBI in the second inning to start the scoring for the Eagles.

“We’ve really gotten our name out there now (as a championship CPL team) because our coach has always pushed us towards that greatness,” said Taft’s senior center fielder, Gabriela Gonzalez, who reflected on her team’s recent success the past few years in the CPL city championships. “This year we all really buckled down when things got hard and tried to live up to that level of play and never gave up. That’s the reason we were able to go undefeated this season in our league.”

Amundsen (20-8) was led by Ellevog and Skylar Shelist (2-for-3 with an RBI), and got a strong pitching performance from sophomore pitcher Allie Reynolds (7 strikeouts) in the loss.

“That’s a heckuva team (Amundsen) we beat,” acknowledged Padilla, who believes big things are ahead for the Vikings under coach Emily Richardson in the future.

TAFT WINS 4-3 THRILLER TO TAKE JUNIOR VARSITY (JV) CROWN

Taft pitcher Gianna Domico was stellar in her seven innings in the circle as the Taft freshman struck out 9 batters and walked just two hitters on her way to securing the 4-3 victory over Lane Tech in the junior varsity (JV) girls softball title game at Flames Field on May 13.

“I thought I was going to pass out and was running on adrenaline in that last inning,” said first-year Taft head coach Kelly Watson, “Today Gianna rocked it, and she’s really great at framing her movement with her pitches, and showed that she knows what she’s doing at the right moment.”

The freshman looked cool under pressure when it counted, as the tying and winning runs were on second and third base with only one out in the last inning, and the Eagles hanging on to a thin one-run lead.

“I had faith in whatever pitches coach (Watson) called and Hailey (Coy) had my back behind the plate – so I knew I was going to hit my spots and get the outs I needed,” said Domino.

Domico induced an infield pop out and ground out against Lane’s last two batters to seal the victory in a well-played contest by both teams.

The Eagles were led by Coy, a sophomore catcher, who had two hits, scored two runs, and had an RBI, to go along with shortstop Isabella Diaz, who was 2-for-4 with a double in the victory.

“I saw that Gianni was on fire, even in warmups before the game. She was throwing strike after strike and knew she’d get the job done and we’d get through this together (as a team) to win,” admitted Coy.

Lane Tech got key contributions from Eleanor Kerstetter (2-for-4 with an RBI) and Jillian Johnson, who went 1-for-2 with two runs scored in defeat. Right-handed freshman pitcher Leila Riffert was also stellar in relief for Lane, holding Taft at bay, not allowing a run in her five innings of work..

The Eagles jumped out to an early 4-0 lead scoring all their runs in the first three innings to secure the nail-biting win.