East County Sports

D2: Sneddon Comes Up Clutch To Rally Sultans

2026 EAST COUNTY PREP SOFTBALL

 

SAN DIEGO CIF DIVISION II PLAYOFFS

 

SANTANA 4, MIRA MESA 3

 

By Adam Paul

 

SANTANA 4, MIRA MESA 3

 

SANTEE – In quite the dramatic fashion on Friday afternoon junior Gabby Sneddon was able to extend the season for the fifth-seeded Santana Sultans as she propelled the rally of a 4-3 victory over the eight-seeded Mira Mesa Marauders in a second round elimination round of the CIF SAN DIEGO SECTION DIVISION II softball playoffs.

Trailing by a score of 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning Gabby Sneddon lined a drive to center field that brought both the game tying and what ended up the game winning runs to give the Sultans their 17th victory in dramatic fashion and staved off elimination for another day.

Santana with the come from behind victory improved to 17-12 and will once again take on fourth-seeded Westview who lost to top-seeded Carlsbad 3-0 in second round play and previously beat Santana 5-1 in first round action.

It wasn’t easy for the Sultans on Friday as they would trail 2-0 after the top of the third inning thanks to a pair of run scoring singles by the Marauders.

However, the Sultans would chip away thanks to a run in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Kaitlyn Ruckle and tie the game in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to Ashlyn Darrow who helped her own cause with an RBI double.

Mira Mesa would retake the lead in the top of the sixth inning as they scored with two outs thanks to an error by the Sultans.

Alexa Freitas who came into the contest in the top of the seventh inning in relief of Darrow still trailing 3-2 would retire the first batter of the inning but would come under fire as the next couple of batters would single which was followed by a fielding error to load the bases. Despite the setback of loading the bases Freitas settled down as she struck out the next batter and would retire the following batter via groundout to stop any further run damage from occurring.

Santana in the bottom of the seventh would start out with a double by Paityn Miller and Darrow reaching on an error which was followed up with the GW two-run double.

For the Sultans, Freitas picked up the win as she allowed no runs on one hit in one inning of work in which she struck out one.

Offensively, Samantha Mora, Miller, Sneddon, and Brynn Warren each tallied a pair of hits.

The Sultans after eliminating the Marauders now turn their attention to Westview on Saturday as they once again look to stave off elimination and make the semi-finals for the first time since the 2023 season when they earned a spot in the CIF Division II championship.

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