Neighbor News
Taylor excels on never-say-die DVC softball team
The Diablo Valley College softball team boasts a strong-hitting catcher and a strong fighting spirit
Diablo Valley softball player Terri Taylor showed Tuesday why she is having such an outstanding season at the plate for the Vikings.
The freshman sent the first two pitches she saw against Sierra into the outfield for a long flyout and a single. In her last at-bat, she displayed patience and walked on four pitches.
“She’s very aggressive at home plate, has good power, drives the ball,” said DVC coach Dennis Luquet after his team’s 4-3 loss Tuesday.
Taylor, a catcher, was batting .468 entering Tuesday’s game with a .500 on-base percentage, a .675 slugging percentage, 26 RBI and 26 runs scored. She led the Vikings in batting average, slugging percentage, RBI and runs scored entering Tuesday’s game.
“I’ve been working really hard,” said Taylor, a 2015 Acalanes High graduate. “I think it’s all mental … Once I started hitting here and saw what I could do … it just kept getting better.”
Taylor attended Chabot last year, but did not play softball in the spring season at the community college level before transferring to DVC.
Luquet remembers the first time he watched her hit.
“I saw her swing in the cage and I said “Oh my God, she can hit,” he said.
Diablo Valley has been hitting well as a team. Entering Tuesday’s game, they had a .348 team batting average and .418 on-base percentage.
The Vikings also showed a never-say-die attitude Tuesday. Trailing 4-1 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, Katie Kaprive walked with one out, then on a 1-1 pitch, Ciara Whitesell slammed a two-run homer over the left field fence before two groundouts ended the game.
“I thought we played a great game. We had one bad inning,” Luquet said. “I thought we brought great energy … I thought our pitcher (Sita Manoa) did great.”
Sierra (26-5, 13-3 Big 8 Conference) scored all of its runs in the third inning, powered by a three-run home run by Shyanne Winje.
Diablo Valley (15-10, 8-9) produced its first run of the game in the bottom of the third. The Vikings loaded the bases on a walk by Kaitlyn Van Motman and singles by Marissa Maddox and Taylor. Elvia Alvarado drove in Van Motman with a long sacrifice fly to left field.
-- Phil Jensen, special to DVC
