Prep Softball: Broncos fall to losers bracket

The Rancho Bernardo High softball team has not had much luck going through the losers bracket the past two years. But the Broncos are hoping to turn the tables this time around.

Fourth-seeded Rancho Bernardo will have to do it the hard way if it wants to capture a San Diego Section Division I title, after falling to the losers bracket with Thursday’s 2-0 loss to visiting West Hills in the quarterfinals.

The difference in the game was a one-out, two-run double by in the third inning by Alex Guay. The Broncos threatened in the fourth and seventh, but failed to push a run across and are now one loss away from being eliminated.

Rancho Bernardo will try to fight off elimination starting Saturday against the loser of Thursday’s No. 1 Patrick Henry vs. No. 9 Westview. The Broncos will host if the Wolverines won and will travel if Patrick Henry came out victorious.

It will take four straight wins for Rancho Bernardo to reach the championship game now. Last year the Broncos managed to stave off elimination twice when they fell to the losers bracket. In 2014, it won an elimination game before being eliminated.

Konner Dahlberg was the tough-luck loser, allowing just three hits in the loss. The San Diego State-bound junior went 2-for-2 at the plate. She was stranded on third base in the fourth inning, when the Broncos had their best chance to score.

But West Hills pitcher Ryleigh Dobyns was able to get out of the second-and-third, two-out jam with a strikeout. She polished off the complete-game, shutout by inducing a groundout with runners on first and third and two out in the seventh.

West Hills advances to Saturday’s semifinals, where it will play the winner of the Patrick Henry-Westview game.