Sports
Redwood Seeks Icing on its Softball Cake
The MCAL champs hope to do better than last year's semifinal bow-out when the NCS Championships begin Thursday with a matchup against Clayton Valley of Concord.
softball coach says his team already is in possession of “the prize:” the Marin County Athletic League championship.
“Now it goes after the “icing on the cake:” a North Coast Section title.
“The pressure is off,” Casassa insisted on the eve of Thursday’s NCS opener at home against Clayton Valley of Concord at 5 p.m., a game that was postponed from Wednesday because of wet grounds.
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“What happens is we put more of the energy into winning the (MCAL) pennant. Because in our particular league, with 10 teams, you play 18 league games out of the 24 you’re allowed. That only leaves six non-league games. So we’ve always made winning the pennant our top priority.”
The Giants displayed championship form last week in the MCAL Playoffs. Led by seniors , , and , Redwood ran its season record to 21-5 by dispatching two foes, including Tam 4-1 in the finals.
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Casassa admits he knows very little about Clayton Valley, and he seems to like that.
“I’m happy,” he said of his team’s No. 4 NCS seeding. “I love that we’re playing East Bay teams in our bracket. I like playing teams outside of our area — just for the fun of it. It’s something new.”
Not that they’re looking forward, but if Redwood were to win the NCS championship, it quite likely would have to reverse two of its losses from earlier in the season.
The top three seeds in the tournament are Pinole Valley, Petaluma and Rancho Cotate, all of which own one-run wins over the Giants this season. Pinole Valley is a possible semifinal foe, while Petaluma and Rancho Cotate would have to go head-to-head before possibly seeing the Giants in the finals.
Redwood’s season ended last year in the NCS semifinals with another one-run defeat, that one to Montgomery of Santa Rosa. It also is in this year’s powerful field.
“We almost got to the finals last year. This year they would really like to do it,” Casassa said of his senior-laden squad. “They were all talking about how great it would be.”
If Redwood wins, its second-round game also would be at home either Friday or Saturday against Carondelet of Concord.
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