For the second-straight season, Freedom softball found itself in the North Coast Section Division 3 semifinals at Alhambra in Martinez. For the second-straight season, the Falcons reached the final four after winning their first two playoff games on the road, this year traveling north to Cloverdale before making the long trip to Fortuna for the quarterfinals.

And for the second-straight season, Freedom’s postseason ended against the Bulldogs, this time in a 12-8 loss Wednesday.

This year, however, the Falcons leave the postseason with a clearer glimpse of what could be ahead, especially in the pitchers circle with sophomore Ella Ferguson and freshman Tatum Pearce, who both went from junior varsity directly into the NCS playoffs.

“They stepped up. …I love the way they just conducted themselves,” Freedom head coach Kenny Sposito said. “It’s not easy coming up here and getting it done with all this pressure, and they really showed that [they can handle it].

“I’ve seen players come up and just have stage fright. Tatum, I love the way she approaches the game. And Ella just comes up here and puts it down, leaves it out there and lets it go. You’re going to hear from her before it’s all over.”

Ferguson and Pearce took over in the circle for sophomore Riley Moon, who missed the postseason and the end of the regular season with a wrist injury.

Ferguson allowed one run in her playoff debut at Cloverdale, helping lead Freedom to a 12-1 win in the opener. Pearce followed two days later by allowing three runs on three hits in 2 2/3 innings in the Falcons’ 20-9 win at Fortuna in the quarterfinals.

“I’m disappointed [in the loss] because I felt like we could hit,” Sposito said.”They couldn’t stop us. I thought we were going to have a battle here, and we battled. We didn’t give up, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to throw strikes.”

Both young pitchers battled Wednesday after Freedom’s strong start to the day, but walks helped Alhambra get back into the game and eventually take control.

“Too many walks,” Sposito said. “Too many walks, too many close calls. We’ve got to keep the game out of everyone’s hands except for our own. That ended up hurting us.”

Freedom jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI-triple to left by senior Yasmeen Sanchez, scoring Avery Del Real after she drew a lead-off walk. Mercedes Marquez followed with a grounder to third that brought in Sanchez, pushing the Falcons’ lead to 2-0. Two batters later, Ciera Canion drove a pitch over the left-field fence for a solo home run to cap Freedom’s three-run start.

“We started off with high energy,” Canion said. “As soon as they started hitting, it kind of died down, and I think we really just needed to get our energy up to start rallying again. But it’s hard to start that when you’re down.”

Ferguson retired two of the first three batters she faced. But a one-out walk, followed by two more with two outs, loaded the bases. Ferguson walked in Alhambra’s first run, and the Bulldogs added another on a passed ball before Ferguson got Ruby Griffonne to pop out to right field to end the inning.

Freedom scored two more runs in the second to take a 5-2 lead, but Alhambra answered with eight straight runs over the next two innings to take a 10-5 lead after the third and never looked back.

The Falcons tried to rally in the fifth, getting back-to-back RBI singles from Ashlynn Gonzaga and Katelyn Slagle to pull within 11-7. Freshman McKenna Johnston drew a walk to load the bases for freshman second baseman Addison Turnage, who represented the tying run at the plate. But Turnage’s sacrifice fly to left was all Freedom could get as the Falcons cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 11-8.

Alhambra added one more run in the bottom of the fifth to push the lead back to four and effectively put the game away.

“We just have to try to grow as much as we can from it,” Canion said. “We will definitely work hard to come back and win it next season.”