Del Norte rallies late to beat Valley View, advance to SoCal Regional final

The cake was iced and ready at the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday, but someone forgot to light the candles for birthday girl Julia Montemayor.

With the bases loaded, she popped up to third and soon the SoCal Regional Division 1 semifinal extended to extra innings for Del Norte High School and Valley View of Moreno Valley.

Not to worry, two innings later, the now 17-year-old junior shortstop drove the first pitch she saw in the bottom of the ninth sharply inside the left-field line for the first walk-off hit in her 6,210 days of life.

When Lainey Llamas scored easily from second base, the Nighthawks celebrated their birthday hero and danced off with a 4-3 win over Valley View that advanced them to Saturday’s championship.

“It’s exciting stuff,” Montemayor said. “We’ve got some bundt cakes ready for us at home. My mom picked some up earlier today. I can’t wait. It’s going to taste so good.”

Third-seeded Del Norte (25-6) will play the winner of Friday’s semifinal — No. 5 Great Oaks (16-10-1) at No. 1 Murrieta Mesa (26-4). The championship will be at the higher seed’s home field. No. 7 Valley View finished 26-6-1.

“Oh my God,” Del Norte coach Amanda Nelson exclaimed. “This is crazy.”

Nelson then turned to her fun-loving squad and asked them, “What’s our magic number now?”

In unison, they screamed: “One!”

Squared at 3, Alexis Kyles led off the bottom of the seventh with her second single, and Llamas bunted her over to second. The Eagles pitched very carefully to and eventually walked Jessica Phelps, then intentionally walked Lex Brunetti to load the bases for Montemayor. Her popup traveled about 30 feet from home, and Brooklyn Giaime flew out to center to end the inning.

With one out in the ninth, Llamas doubled to the fence in left-center. Phelps then flew out to right before Brunetti was intentionally walked for the second time. This time, Montemayor came through with the biggest hit of her life off freshman lefty Bella Hernandez.

“After Lex got walked again, I knew she was going to throw me down and in,” Montemayor said. “I just scooted off the plate a bit, got my arms extended and got some elevation with the hit. I knew it was going to go down. I was just waiting for Lainey to score so we could celebrate.”

In the fifth, Brunetti gave the Nighthawks a 3-2 lead with a towering two-run home run over the 15-foot right-center field fence. That gave her six HRs and 26 RBI – both team highs.

“It felt good off the bat,” Brunetti said. “Everything kind of aligned in the moment.”

Vallley View sophomore slugger Alyssa Torres hit a two-run homer in the second to make it 2-1. That tied her for the state lead with 20 HRs this season.

However, in the eighth inning, Torres came to bat again with a runner on first and one out. Nelson elected to pitch to Torres rather than walk her.

Princeton-bound pitcher Phelps (14-1, 1.40 ERA) got Torres to bounce into a double play – pitcher to short to first.

“I knew she was a good hitter,” Phelps said. “My goal was to keep her off her toes. She got one, but we got the double play. I’ll take that.”

Montemayor scored the first run. After beating out a perfectly placed bunt, she raced home on a double to left by Ava Giaime.

Del Norte defeated Valley View, 13-3, on April 20 in Moreno Valley. Montemayor was 3-for-4 with four RBI in that rout.

“I think a lot of people counted us out this year because of all the stuff that’s gone on with the program,” Nelson said. “But these girls work hard. People say you can’t work hard and have fun, but you can. These girls proved you can do both and win.”