When Meeka Martinez’s second throwing error of the fifth inning allowed Redwood to erase Riverside Prep softball’s lead Thursday afternoon, nobody in the dugout or on the field panicked.
Not the coaches. Not the players.
And certainly not freshman ace Lila Morris.
For a team that has built its season on confidence and trust, one bad inning wasn’t going to change anything.
Instead, Riverside Prep responded the same way it has all postseason.
By trusting each other.
“We just have to keep believing in ourselves and trust that we can do all the things that we’ve worked on all year long,” Riverside Prep’s Breeanna Garcia said. “We just really grind and we trust each other fully. That’s all it is. Trust.”
That trust has become the defining characteristic of Riverside Prep’s historic season.
The Silver Knights will play for a CIF State Southern California Regional championship Saturday after surviving another one-run game, defeating Redwood 4-3 in the semifinals.
The victory marked the latest chapter in a postseason filled with pressure-packed moments.
Riverside Prep beat Quartz Hill 2-1. They edged Oak Park 2-1. They outlasted Dos Pueblos 4-2 in nine innings.
Can’t forget that rally from an early deficit to defeat Great Oak 4-3 for the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 championship game.
Then they beat Del Norte 1-0 behind a 15-strikeout performance from Morris.
And when Redwood tied Thursday’s semifinal game after a pair of errors, Riverside Prep once again found a way.
Martinez admitted the mistakes weighed on her immediately.
“I think I over processed,” Martinez said. “I was super tense. But then I had to tell myself that it was OK because errors are going to happen. I just had to shake it off and play the game until it’s done.”
The ability to move forward quickly has been one of Riverside Prep’s greatest strengths.
No player understands that better than Morris.
The freshman pitcher has carried a massive workload throughout the season and often finds herself navigating high-pressure situations. Yet she rarely allows mistakes behind her to alter her approach.
“It can get tough because I know their ability and seeing them fail is tough,” Morris said. “So I just tried to get out of that inning. I remembered to fully trust in them that they’ll be able to come back for me.”
They did.
One inning later, Garcia doubled, stole third base and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI hit from Obie Obregon.
Like clockwork, the Silver Knights reclaimed the lead. Morris closed out the victory. And the season continued.
Obregon believes that confidence has become contagious throughout the roster.
“Even if we do make errors, we always come up to her like, ‘Hey, we got your back on the next one,” Obregon said. “Or we got you offensively.’ She just knows to trust us because we’ve got her.”
That mentality has become the foundation of the program under first-year head coach Lou Allan.
Throughout the season, Allan has emphasized confidence and composure, often reminding her players that the biggest moments should feel no different than any other game.
Earlier this postseason, Allan recalled advice she learned from her grandmother, former USA Softball player Sheila Cornell-Douty.
“Whenever you’re nervous, as long as the butterflies are flying in formation, you can always calm it down and get back to center,” Allan said.
The Silver Knights have followed that advice repeatedly.
No matter the score. No matter the inning. No matter the opponent.
But if the postseason has proven anything, it’s that this team doesn’t measure itself by the obstacles in front of it.
The Silver Knights measure themselves by the trust beside them. So far, that has been enough to carry them farther than any softball team in school history.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Why Riverside Prep softball never panics
Reporting by Jose Quintero, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jose Quintero, Victorville Daily Press | USA TODAY Network
