SARATOGA -- In a rematch of the 2024 NorCal Regional, two top-15 team faced off in a Saturday afternoon, non-conference doubleheader. No. 3 West Valley played host to No. 15 Sierra, a team rebounding in a strong way from a rare down year last season, and TK, falling 1-0 in game one before winning 4-2 in the second.

The Vikings (TK, 4-1 Coast) and Wolverines (TK, 9-3 Big 8) are two very different teams from their 2024 seasons, when the Vikings were upset in the opening round and Sierra, a sub-.500 team all season, reached the state tournament. But what hasn't changed is the scrappiness the two teams play with, and two hard-fought games should set both programs up well for their runs to postseason play.

"I think the rebound was fantastic," said head coach Vicky Piatt after the pair. "This team has to be able to learn how to make adjustments in-game, but also be able to lose a first game and be able to bounce back and make adjustments to win a second game. So the adjustments were fantastic."

Sierra's top half of the first was indicative of what the rest of the day would become for the Wolverines - they proved they were a group that would draw long at-bats, foul off pitches and make West Valley pitching work to get its outs. Leadoff hitter Taylor Fitzgerald singled and stole second, and the Wolverines had runners on first and second with just one out but starting pitcher Amelia Sizemore picked up a strikeout and a fielders' choice to end the inning. On the other side, Sierra's Lilliana Cruz allowed a one-out single but nothing else in a scoreless first.

In the top of the second, Sizemore loaded the bases with nobody out, walking one, hitting one and allowing a single. Ana Marquez entered out of the bullpen and started extremely strong. She got the bottom, and subsequently the top, of Sierra's lineup to ground into back-to-back 6-2 putouts while the bases stayed full. But with two outs and an 0-2 advantage to Marquez, Briana Parker singled up the middle to bring home the games' only run.

West Valley held a chance of its own in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with one out after singles from Destiny Solis and Aneesa Aguon and a hit by pitch against April Price. But third baseman Ella Moser struck out, and leadoff hitter Izzy Paskert popped up to the right side as the Vikings went down unceremoniously.

The only other real action in the game came in the top of the fourth, when the Wolverines led off the inning with a double. Morgan Golightly then bunted back to the circle, and knocked the ball out of the hands of Viking first baseman Raylene Cruz. After a discussion from the two umpires, they decided that both Golightly and the leading runner, who had tried for home plate on the play, would have been out on the play without interference.

Now with a touch of momentum, the Vikings got two on with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. But Paskert flew out to medium-deep center to end the inning, and Sierra starter Lilliana Cruz retired the next ten Vikings to close out the game.

In the second game, Sierra similarly jumped out to an early lead. Now with Bri Padilla getting the ball for the Vikings, Fitzgerald led off the game with a single, switching places with Parker on an ensuing fielders' choice. Ciana Lagier singled Parker to third, and on a high chopper back to Padilla, she couldn't get the throw home in time to nab the lead runner. The Vikings, who went down in order in the bottom of the first, got a one-out double from Lexi Bojorquez-Nava in the second but nothing else as Consuelo Vasquez retired six of the first seven Viking batters.

But for the first time all day, the Vikings bats ignited in the bottom of the third. Price led off by being hit by a pitch, and Moser moved her to second with a bunt. Back to the top of the lineup, Paskert did her job, flaring a 2-1 pitch into right for a base hit. But Fitzgerald fired a strike home, cutting down Price after a lengthy rundown. In danger of getting through another inning without a run, Temple slashed an 0-1 pitch over the Sierra third baseman's head, bringing home Paskert and the Vikings' first run of the day.

Kaylee Kline entered the circle in the fourth and did what she's done all season for the Vikings. She struck out the first batter she faced, then incuded a soft ground ball right back to her and finished the inning with another punchout following a two-out walk. 

West Valley took that juice and ran with it in the bottom of the fourth. Katy Lambert, starting in the DP spot after a successful offensive week in conference play, clobbered a ball on the ground to the right side that ticked off the glove of Sierra second baseman Ashlyn Leighton, then moved to second on a wild pitch. Bojorquez-Nava doubled for the second time in the game, this one ripped off the wall in left to even the score at two.

Following a move to third on a fly to center from Solis, Zoe Griffin walked on five pitches. With runners on the corners and just one out, Sierra made its first pitching change of the day, replacing Vasquez with Iris Perez. But Price popped out to center on the first pitch, not deep enough for Bojorquez-Nava to score. Then Moser tapped out to the circle to end the inning.

Kline worked another hitless top of the fifth inning, and the Vikins took their first lead of the day in the bottom of the fifth. Temple took a one-out walk, and with two down, Lambert pummeled a ball to the left-center gap, scoring Temple and moving to second on the throw. That extra 60 feet proved gigantic. Bojorquez-Nava, already working on a 2-for-2 day, made it 3-for-3 with a chopper up the middle. After Sierra first baseman Claudia Dudek went into an all-out split trying to record the final out, Lambert, who had taken third, never stopped running and came around to score without a throw.

After the teams traded scoreless frames in the sixth, Lambert worked around a one-out single while striking out her fifth, sixth and, to end the game, seventh batters as the Vikings rebounded from game one with a well-rounded game two victory. 

Saturday's pair was a quick non-conference matchup, but the Vikings resume conference play on the road at Hartnell this Tuesday.