Softball Quarterfinals: Let the fun begin, St. Lucy’s, Bishop Amat and Chino Hills to fight it out in Semifinals; San Dimas, South El Monte finished

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Keith Birmingham’s photo gallery on St. Lucy’s win.

Bishop Amat will host top-seed Chino Hills on Tuesday; St. Lucy’s on the road at South Torrance.

St. Lucy’s 5, North Torrance 3: St. Lucy’s Brandi Harkness, Laura Swan, Danielle Mavridis and Katie Lange knew they probably wouldn’t have another opportunity in the seventh to extend their season, so the seniors took care of business in the sixth to lead the Regents to a come-from-behind, 5-3 victory over North Torrance in the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 quarterfinals at Mt. San Antonio College on Thursday with four consecutive hits and back-to-back run-producing doubles to seal the deal.

Chino Hills 5, Mira Costa 0: Innamorato, Chino Hills softball team shut down Mira Costa

Bishop Amat 10, Burbank 4: The Lancers used their bats on Thursday afternoon to get a big lead on host Burbank, then staved off any thoughts of a rally by the Bulldogs and posted a 10-4 win in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 playoffs.

Buena 10, San Dimas 1: After beating Aquinas, the top-seeded team in Division 4, one would think it would get easier the rest of the way. This wasn’t the case for the San Dimas softball team (22-8, 11-1) as it lost to Buena, 10-1, in the quarterfinal round of the CIF-SS playoffs.

Barstow 20, South El Monte 1: Barstow eliminated South El Monte with a 20-1 win Thursday to advance to the semifinals. It was the third consecutive lopsided victory for the Aztecs, who have outscored their playoff opponents 66-12. Barstow defeated Magnolia in the first round, 32-8, before beating No. 5 seed Schurr on Tuesday, 14-3.

Thursday’s Quarterfinal Results
Division 3
Chino Hills 5, Mira Costa 0
Bishop Amat 10, Burbank 4
St. Lucy’s 5, North Torrance 3
South Torrance 6, Warren 2
Division 4
Buena 10, San Dimas 1
Division 5
Barstow 20, South El Monte 1

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  • AMAT 73

    Good luck to The Lady Lancers today . Stay focused and play your game and get the W . Also good luck to the teams of the SGV who are playing today .

  • R Gary

    Two local teams, Amat and St. Lucy’s make the semi finals. Good showing by the SGV.

  • crickets

    You know why it’s quiet in here, because the crybaby ex-coaches can’t stand that St. Lucy’s is winning without them. You can rest assured that if St. Lucy’s lost, they would be filling up this board with their usual venom, hate and jealousy. Good job girls, do it for yourselves, you’ve earned this. Just like Volleyball, it’s gonna be Lucy’s and Hills in the finals, sorry Amat.

  • R Gary

    Fred, Compliments to Mr. Birmingham, for some great photos.

  • Fred Robledo

    Birmingham is without a doubt, one of the best sports photographers in the business, we’re lucky to have him. What I love about Keith is he’s covered every big event you can think of, NBA Finals, World Series, Rose Bowl games, and covers Dodgers, Angels, UCLA and USC regularly, and gives the same effort on a high school game that he would if he was shooting the Lakers-Celtics Game 7. There aren’t many guys like that.

  • St. Lucy parent

    Thank you very much for the great pictures! Our kids will pull out these pictures 20 years from now and have wonderful memories. Good luck girls, we are proud of you.

  • http://yahoo.com Ex. coach

    Hey, Cricket
    I don’t know what ex coaches you are talking about,but this former coach is happy that her girls are going all the way. It only validates the fact that we put them on varsity as freshmen knowing that by the time they were seniors they would be the most talented and seasoned team in the valley. We’ve been right all along and this only proves it. So I personally am very happy for them because they deserve all the attention and accolades that are given them.

  • R Gary

    Fred,

    After looking at some of the scores, 20-1 Barstow over So. El monte, 15-0 Norco over Foothill, Buena 10-1 over San Dimas,Pomona Catholic 28-0 over St. Matthias, and many more lopsided scores since the beginning of playoffs, I assume there must not be a Mercy rule, correct?
    Also how does Pomona Catholic stay in Div7? They have been to the finals many times and have beaten many larger schools including SL. Div 7 is a step up from Jr. High, Seriously.

  • Steve Ramirez

    R Gary, as always, the 10-run rule (the correct usage) doesn’t begin until the team trailing has had its at-bats in the fifth inning, so it’s possible to win a game 15-0 if you score those 15 runs during the first four innings.

  • Dean Bunting

    There is no 10 run rule in effect during CIF playoffs. Many leagues use it during the league season. In the South El Monte game Barstow came out on fire scoring 19 in the first 2 innings so that rule would have made no difference.

  • St. Lucy’s vs. North Torrance

    St. Lucy’s softball team comes from behind to earn trip to semifinals

    WALNUT – St. Lucy’s Brandi Harkness, Laura Swan, Danielle Mavridis and Katie Lange knew they probably wouldn’t have another opportunity in the seventh to extend their season, so the seniors took care of business in the sixth to lead the Regents to a come-from-behind, 5-3 victory over North Torrance in the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 quarterfinals at Mt. San Antonio College on Thursday with four consecutive hits and back-to-back run-producing doubles to seal the deal.

    “We did it,” Lange said. “We didn’t want it to end.”

    For a while, it looked like it would.

    North rocked St. Lucy’s San Diego State-bound pitcher Danielle O’Toole early, getting back-to-back solo home runs from Bryanna Ybarra and Coco Taualii to go up 3-1 in the third inning, knocking O’Toole around the park with five extra-base hits and seven hits through four innings.

    “They were hitting the high pitches,” O’Toole said. “I had to figure it out to give my team a chance.”

    O’Toole didn’t give up another hit the rest of the way, retiring 10 straight to finish the game and bearing down in the seventh, getting three straight groundouts to end it.

    St. Lucy’s (24-5) advances to Tuesday’s semifinals on the road at South

    Torrance, a 6-2 winner over Warren, while top-seeded Chino Hills visits Bishop Amat in the other semifinal.
    “We hit the ball well early, and they hit the ball well late,” Saxons coach Howard Miller said. “We knew we were up against a tough customer (O’Toole). She settled in and made quality pitches when she had to.”

    The Regents closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Saxons pitcher Kelsey Caims was called for an illegal pitch with the bases loaded and two out, forcing in Caroline Smith.

    That set the stage for the Regents’ rally in the sixth.

    With one out, Harkness and Swan hit back-to-back singles and Mavridis, broken nose and all, belted a double to right-center field to bring in both to push the Regents ahead, 4-3.

    It was Mavridis’ second double and third RBI after doubling home Swan in the second inning.

    “We had seen their pitcher enough,” Mavridis said. “We didn’t want to wait until the seventh, if it was going to happen, it had to happen now. I just kept my head down and went with the pitch.”

    Lange followed with a double to bring in Mavridis for insurance.

    “I felt like we had the momentum with the first two hits (Harkness and Swan) and had to keep going with it,” Lange said. “We’ve had come-from-behind wins before and once we got it going, I knew we would finish it.”

    For O’Toole, she couldn’t say enough about her team. She thought she had let them down early only to watch them rally late.

    “I love this team,” O’Toole said. “We all had to fight back and figure it out. It was a team win, just a great team win, I’m so proud of everyone and (Mavridis), I love that kid. She’s got a lot of heart and this team has a lot of heart.”

    For Miller, whose team had all the momentum early, the loss was tough to stomach. North finished 25-8.

    “Typically we normally wait until the end of the game to get going, to do our damage,” Miller said. “It started well, but I have to tip my hat to their team and their pitcher.

    “She (O’Toole) came through when she needed to. She persevered after we hit her hard early and gave their team a chance to come back and win.”