Dakota Casper helps deliver St. Lucy’s to semifinals, 4-0; Wilson knocks out Harvard-Westlake


Dakota Casper delivers for St. Lucy’s Dakota Casper has had her fair share of big games for St. Lucy’s, but this might have been her best, and it moved the Regents within one game of playing for a championship.Casper threw a shutout and went 3-for-3 with two doubles and three RBIs in a 4-0 victory over Villa Park in Thursday’s CIF Southern Section Division 2 quarterfinals.The win sends St. Lucy’s (19-6) to Tuesday’s semifinals where it will be at home against Camarillo, a 9-1 winner over Santa Monica.If you thought there would be complacency a game after St. Lucy’s knocked off previously undefeated and top seed Gahr, 10-4, in the second round, think again.“Not with this team,” St. Lucy’s coach David Gaither said. “They’re a close group that’s playing their best during the best part of the season. They’ve played in the Baseline league, the best league in the San Gabriel Valley and that’s prepared us for this. We’re enjoying it.”

Wilson in semifinals for first time since 2000: Wilson’s softball team continued its late-season surge with a 6-0 win over fifth-seeded Harvard-Westlake in a CIF-Southern Section Division 6 quarterfinal playoff game Thursday afternoon.
The Wildcats will host top-seeded Sierra Canyon in a semifinal game Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. It will be their first semifinal since they won a CIF-SS championship in 2000.
Wilson (17-10-2) broke open what had been an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel in the bottom of the sixth when it sent 11 batters to the plate and scored all of its runs.

Errors cost Charter Oak: First-year Charter Oak softball coach Brittany Saucedo’s mantra to her squad all season was simple; to execute the little things for a complete game.
The Chargers learned the hard way on Thursday what happens when they don’t execute the little things.Visiting Dana Hills defeated Charter Oak 12-5 in a CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoff game. In the first three innings, Charter Oak committed two errors that led to nine Dolphins runs.
“If we make some of the plays at the beginning of the ballgame, it’s a totally different game,” Saucedo said. “We fought for the entire game. We had runners on base almost every inning. It just didn’t go our way today.”

Los Altos loses close one: Ayala High School softball coach John Ameluxen has enjoyed his 2017 season, but with five freshmen and two sophomores starting for a team that finished in third place in the Palomares League, what could he expect for the CIF Southern Section playoffs?
As it turns out, a lot.
For the first time since winning the CIF-SS title in 2010, Ayala advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 victory over visiting Los Altos in a Division 3 quarterfinal Thursday. Ayala (24-10) will play at Hart on Tuesday.

South El Monte’s big season comes to an end: The South El Monte High School softball team’s dream postseason ran into Lilly Robles on Thursday afternoon and the senior ace was all too happy to give the Eagles a rude wake-up call.
Robles piled up 13 strikeouts and gave up only three hits to lead Heritage Christian to a 11-1 win over host South El Monte in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs. The Warriors will play Godinez in next week’s semifinals.

High School Softball Playoffs
Thursday’s Quarterfinal Results
Division 2

St. Lucy’s 4, Villa Park 0
Dana Hills 12, Charter Oak 5
Division 3
Ayala 1, Los Altos 0
Division 5
Heritage Christian 11, South El Monte 1
Division 6
Wilson 6, Harvard-Westlake 0
Division 7
Century 4, Mountain View 3

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