The Desert Sun - High school sports often leads to fond memories

By Shad Powers, The Desert Sun

May 5, 2010 - Most of us who played high school sports have that one special memory.
For me it was scoring 15 points in a basketball game for Alma High School against hated rival St. Johns. For TV's Al Bundy it was when he scored four touchdowns for Polk High.

As we get older, those memories grow fonder and often more impressive — like the time I scored 25 points against St. Johns.

Well last Friday one of those moments happened for Indio High School softball player Cerila Zamarripa. No matter what she goes on to do in her life, she'll remember her moment at La Quinta High School and she'll remember the name Bryana Walker. Here's the back story for those not following the valley's high school softball scene.

La Quinta is an outstanding team, currently ranked No. 2 in its division, led by Walker, a senior flame-thrower who is a dominating force on the mound. How dominating you ask?

Well, in her first 10 Desert Valley League games, she allowed zero runs and pitched five no-hitters. La Quinta as a team hadn't allowed a run in 16 games, outscoring its opponents 143-0 during that stretch, including two shutouts of a very good Indio squad (3-0 and 4-0).

Put simply, Walker and her super-charged fastball were untouchable.
After two games and five innings of not much success against Walker, Zamarripa's moment came Friday night in the sixth inning.

With the game still tied 0-0, Indio's Desiree Chavez scratched out an infield single with two outs.

Zamarripa stepped to the plate. Walker unleashed the pitch.
“I saw it coming and it was a fastball,” Zamarripa said. “It was a great feeling just hitting the ball.”

She hit it all right. When she made contact, an audible gasp came from the 400 or so in attendance, not used to hearing a Walker pitch met so soundly.

She sent the ball flying toward the gap in left-centerfield. It one-hopped the wall. Chavez raced around to score. Indio had scored a run off Walker.
That's right. La Quinta yielded a run.

It was the first time since March 3. That's 59 days, 16 games, 117 innings and 353 outs with no runs scored. The streak was over.

Behind the stellar pitching of freshman Heather Morales, Indio not only scored a run, but won the game 1-0.

La Quinta is still all but certain to win the DVL regular season title and Indio is on pace to make the playoffs. Both teams are talented enough to make a deep run.
The senior Walker's amazing high school softball career will come to an end in the coming weeks. She is going to attend Princeton, so softball is clearly not her only area of expertise.

The sophomore Zamarripa has plenty more high school softball games in her future.
But no matter how many league titles and home runs and playoff victories she racks up, it's unlikely she'll ever forget her sixth-inning regular season at-bat against Bryana Walker on April 30, 2010.

And just like me with my 35-point outburst against St. Johns, Zamarripa can tell her grandkids about the time she got an incredible RBI double off of a future Olympian who had pitched 50 consecutive no-hitters.

Aren't memories grand.

Shad Powers is the assistant sports editor for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at (760) 778-4627 or at shad.powers@thedesertsun.com.