Results tagged “Softball” from Pure Preps | High School Sports in the South Bay

Two-time Daily Breeze Player of the Year Taylor Petty has continued to thrive in her freshman season at Long Beach State.

Petty, the former San Pedro star, earned Big West Conference Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career.

Petty helped Long Beach State sweep Pacific. She threw an eight-inning complete-game in a 2-1 victory over Pacific, allowing three hits and one run while tying her career high with 11 strikeouts.

Petty then earned the start in the finale and responded with her 15th complete game of the year. Petty again gave up just one run while scattering five hits and registering seven strikeouts.

For the series, Petty posted a 0.93 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 15.0 innings of work. She held the Tigers to eight hits, two runs and a .160 batting average.

The L.A. City Section softball seeding meeting is officially over, and here is what emerged from the meeting.

San Pedro, still fresh off a dramatic 4-3 comeback win over Carson to win the Marine League title, is the No. 1 seed.

The Pirates and pitcher Kailee Cuico, pictured, will try to win the program's ninth City title in the last 10 years and the fourth in a row for the Pirates.

Marine League runner-up Carson is No. 5 and Banning is No. 6. We could possibly see a San Pedro-Carson semifinal.

Western League champion Westchester is No. 9 and could face San Pedro in the quarterfinals, the fourth time these teams would hook up. 

Here are the early seedings:

1. San Pedro
2. El Camino Real
3. Kennedy
4. Granada Hills
5. Carson
6. Banning
7. Chatsworth
8. Marshall
9. Westchester
10.Lincoln
11. L.A. Poly
12. Narbonne
13. San Fernando
14. Sylmar
15. Birmingham
16. Grant
17. South East
18. King-Drew
19. Eagle Rock
20. Bell
21. Venice
22. Huntington Park
23. Palisades
24. Arleta
25.Garfield
26. Verdugo Hills
27. Bravo
28. Roosevelt
29. Fairfax
30. Crenshaw
31. Wilson
32. Hollywood

Torrance softball coach Don Glavich, pictured, warned before the season not to sleep on South Torrance.

Well, in his Pioneer League opener, Glavich watched South give Torrance fits until the final at-bat.

Lauren deCastro hit a game-winning double in the bottom of the seventh that just caught the chalk on the left-field foul-line as Torrance opened Pioneer League play Wednesday with a dramatic 2-1 victory over South Torrance at Wilson Park.

Karina Scott started the rally with a sharp one-out single to center. One out later, deCastro delivered with her double down the line.

"When it came off the bat, it looked like it would clear the fence, but I didn't know if it was going to stay fair," Torrance coach Don Glavich said. "The wind definitely helped it stay fair. I'll take a little help like that when I can get it."

DeCastro, who has been relegated to designated hitter after sustaining a strained ligament in her right elbow over two weeks, had been hit by a pitch in the first inning and almost had to leave the game.

"She toughed it out," Glavich said. "She said she could handle it. Around the fifth inning, it loosened up for her."

Torrance took a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning as Camille Redman singled home Mel Vazquez. But South tied it in the seventh as Leanna Flores doubled down the third-base line to score Shannon Hokama with one out.

Torrance pitcher Mea Flores struck out eight of her first nine batters and finished with 15 strikeouts and no walks in a four-hitter.

South pitcher Jessica Cherness also threw a four-hitter with six strikeouts and four walks.

"I think Chreness is a pitcher who can keep them in games," Glavich said. "Really that's all you need. She kept us off-balance. We've been on a bit of a tear since Las Vegas, but she had us guessing the whole game."

The Redondo softball team picked a great time to turn things around.

Redondo stopped a 10-game losing streak with an 8-3 victory over West Torrance in the Bay League opener for both teams on Wednesday.

"It was a great way to get started in league," Redondo coach Jennifer Dessert said.

Sonia Colavita hit a three-run triple in the first inning and went 2-for-4 with four RBIs for Redondo.

Left-hander Brett Aspel allowed three runs, seven hits, seven strikeouts and two walks for Redondo. Alex O'Hagan went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs for Redondo.

Rachel Gulbrandsen led West (4-8, 0-1) by going 3-for-4 with two doubles and a run, and Leilani Norton added a two-run single. Krista Ross went 2-for-3 with a double for West, which stranded 12 runners.

The Banning softball team posed for photos after winning the Clark Charger Invitational in Las Vegas for the second time, beating Carson, El Camino Real and Granada Hills to cap an unbeaten 6-0 performance in Las Vegas.

Now Banning is preparing to take on Carson in a rematch that has a lot more at stake when the teams meet Tuesday at Carson at 3 p.m. in a key Marine League showdown.

PICTURED: Liz Torrez, Tiana Tuinei and Heather Ward each played large roles in helping Harbor win its first softball game.

Harbor was not about to hang its head, not in its softball opener.

Despite losing three players this week and despite giving up a daunting three runs in the fifth inning Wednesday, Harbor remained resilient.

The Seahawks rallied for a 4-3 nonconference win over visiting Pierce to break in their new program.

Tiana Tuinei hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to score Patricia Galvan with the winning run.

Harbor fell behind, 3-1, in the fifth inning, but tied it in the bottom half of the inning with two-out RBI singles by Christine Barba and Nikki Uranga.

"The girls clutched up," Harbor co-coach Jesse Espinoza said. "They gave up those three runs in the fifth, but they showed a lot of heart to come back like they did."

Harbor learned this week it will have to play without expected stars Irma Espinoza and Dovie Tuli because they did not have enough units to qualify. Roxy Terrazas also got a job and will not be with Harbor this season.

Espinoza moved Liz Torrez to catcher, April Garcia to first base and tried to make the best of the situation.

"This is nothing new to me. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time at Banning," Espinoza said. "So I made a catcher in two days, I made a first baseman in two days and moved some other people around. I've been there, done that."

Pitcher Heather Ward kept Harbor within striking distance, allowing three runs with seven hits, five strikeouts and four walks.

"I had no idea what to expect going in," Espinoza said. "The girls have worked hard. This was nine months in the making. I kicked their butt for nine months, and it worked out.

"Our side was definitely packed. We had people standing along the fence down the lnies. We even had some of our people on their side."

Samantha Heyman might be known more for her softball abilities at El Segundo, but she reached an impressive milestone in girls basketball on Wednesday night.

Heyman scored 11 points to surpass the 1,000-point plateau in her career in El Segundo's 54-34 loss to two-time defending Pioneer League champion South Torrance.

Heyman, a four-year starter for the El Segundo basketball team, entered the game with 995 career points. Now she has 1,006 and can set her sights on the all-time scoring mark held by Kelly Geis.

"It's a big deal," El Segundo basketball coach Mark Doering said. "She's a phenomenal softball player, but she's a four-year starter for us and is a tremendous shooter and a great competitor.

"She's crossed over between the two sports and has done a great job for both teams."

Heyman helped El Segundo's softball team reach  the CIF Division V final in 2007 and the Division V semifinals last season.

It was not much of a surprise, but it was something that was long overdue.

The Pioneer League will move from Division V to Division IV in softball, rectifying a discrepancy that had the area's top softball teams facing teams about a third of their size in the playoffs.

The Pioneer League earned the top three seeds in the Division V playoffs last season and had an All-Pioneer League final between North Torrance and Torrance, meaning the league was running roughshod in the division.

North won the Division V title last season with a dramatic 3-2 win over Torrance, and North coach Howard Miller was looking forward to going against the likes of Bishop Montgomery and Santa Monica in Division IV.

"I expected it," Miller said. "I mean come on, we should've been that high to begin with when the league was formed."

Couldn't have been said any better.

Torrance outfielder Britney Helm and shortstop Karina Scott were invited to the adidas futures softball event this weekend in St. George, Utah, in what Coach Don Glavich described as "a big deal."

Helm and Scott will be joined by Pioneer League rival Sammy Alvillar, a shortstop from North Torrance, and Caitlin Brown, a first baseman and catcher for Palos Verdes.

Glavich said the event is for the top 100 unsigned high school players in the nation. Pioneer League rival Jenna Rich, a pitcher/shortstop who is committed to Stanford, attended the event last year, showing exactly just how much power this event wields.

Helm and Scott were Daily Breeze All-Area selections who helped lead the Tartars to the Pioneer League title and to the CIF Division V title game. Torrance is so big-time that it even has its own Tartar website now.