In almost every instance Los Altos softball coach Lydell McCullough is going to walk South Hills’ Stanford-bound slugger Joie Economides with first base open instead of giving Economides a chance to hit a two-out home run in the seventh inning to tie the game.
But not this time.
McCullough rolled the dice with his pitcher Giselle Mejia, and Economides hit a deep fly ball to left that was caught to end the game, allowing Los Altos to leave with a 4-2 victory that completed a season sweep of the Huskies and gave Los Altos sole possession of first place in the Hacienda League.
Was McCullough second-guessing himself? Yeah, for a second or two.
“Eighty percent of the time I’m telling myself to walk her, but Giselle had done well against her, so I just went for it,” McCullough said of pitching to Economides, who has four home runs this season. “When she hit it I said, ‘oh my God, what did I do?’ It fell two feet short of the fence. I would have felt so stupid, but I’m glad I trusted it, it was a great game.”
Mejia allowed six hits with three strikeouts and also had a double. Los Altos’ Brianah Alejandre, a UCLA commit, finished with two hits a double and sophom*ore Angel Aguilar drove in two of their four runs.
Los Altos (12-7-1, 5-1) moves a game in front of South Hills (12-7, 4-2) in the Hacienda league standings, also beating the Huskies 5-3 in their first meeting.
Los Altos suffered a head-scratching 2-1 loss to struggling Walnut for its only loss in league play, and had not looked particularly impressive over the last two weeks before waking up in time to beat South Hills — again.
“It’s definitely been a roller coaster for us,” McCullough said. “We came out of the gate playing well and then got to the Walnut game and something happened, we were just flat. We went through a rough stretch not playing our best ball and I told the (team) if the South Hills game doesn’t snap it out of us, nothing will. So, I’m really proud how they came out and got it done today.”
SOFTBALL
Whittier Christian 2, Cerritos Valley Christian 1
UCLA bound senior Aleena Garcia gave the Heralds the lead for good with a two-run home run in the fifth inning, and they went to win to take over sole possession of first in the Olympic League.
The Heralds trailed 1-0 when Garcia hit her San Gabriel Valley leading 11th home run of the season to go with 26 RBS. She is batting a mind-bogglling .615 with 39 runs scored as well.
Bobbie Lozano pitched six innings and gave up four hits with one run to pick up the victory. Aubrielle Ramirez closed the game with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
The Heralds (15-7, 4-0) remain undefeated in the Olympic League while dropping Valley Christian to 10-4 and 3-1.
California 4, La Serna 2
The Lancers scored a run in the sixth and seventh innings, but it wasn’t enough to catch the Condors (20-3, 8-0), who remain undefeated in the Del Rio League and are ranked No. 3 in the CIF Southern Section Division 2.
Condors sophom*ore pitcher Alexis Salas threw a complete game, allowing three hits with 10 strikeouts. Ashley Hernandez had a double, three hits and drove in a run.
BASEBALL
St. Francis 1, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 0
The Golden Knights have been on a roll and earned their best victory of the season, shutting out Notre Dame, who is ranked No. 7 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll.
Pitcher Kalani Quiroz threw the complete game shutout, scattering seven hits with four strikeouts.
The Golden Knights (15-8, 6-5) broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning when John Calmette’s fly out scored Jackson Pratt for the go-ahead run.
Notre Dame (13-7-1, 5-5-1) pitcher Nate Kugler, a Darmouth commit, finished with 12 strikeouts.
La Mirada 15, Norwalk 0
Walker Calvo gave up one hit over three innings and Richey Silvas finished the final two innings for the shutout in the five-inning mercy shortened victory.
Maverickk Russell hit a two-run homer and freshman Bear Calvo, sophom*ore Justin Torres and junior Travis Friend each finished with two RBIs as the Matadores to 16-5 and 7-1 in the Gateway league.
Bishop Amat 12, Serra 6
The Lancers scored six runs in the second inning punctuated with Jacob Campos’ three-run homer to take a 9-0 lead and they held on down the stretch to improve to 14-5 overall and 7-1 in the Del Rey League.
Ramond Perez also drove in three runs and Gabriel Guerrero had two hits and an RBI.
Arcadia 9, Glendale 1
The Apaches (14-6, 8-0) remained undefeated in the Pacific League. Damian Catano had two hits and three RBIs and Fernando Palencia doubled in two runs.
Pitcher Gabe Lopez started and went three innings to pick up the victory.
Rio Hondo Prep 11, Pasadena Poly 2
The Kares (7-6-1) shocked the Prep League leading Panthers (13-4, 6-1) by earning their first league win while giving the Panthers their first league loss.
Nate Curtis drove in two runs and Noah Penunuri had a double, two hits, an RBI and scored three runs. Joshua Taflinger had a triple and finished with two RBIs.
South Hills 9, Wilson 0
Steven Jimenez hit a two-run homer and Noah Malone also homered to lead the Huskies, who improved to 15-7 and 5-0 in the Hacienda League.
Paul Vazquez, Aiden Soto, Christian Gomez and Matt Manzo all had doubles for the Huskies.
