Carson High wins City Section softball title, 6-3, over Woodland Hills El Camino Real

Trailing by three runs with three innings left in the City Section softball final, all Carson High needed was a break. It got plenty of them, capitalizing on six errors to upset Woodland Hills El Camino Real, 6-3, and win its first City title in seven tries Friday afternoon at Cal State Northridge.

Carson first baseman Viridiana Ramos led off the top of the fifth with a double to the wall in center field, then El Camino Real third baseman Cassandra Perez’s low throw to first skipped under the glove of Alex Conway to give the Colts runners at second and third. Darian Tautalafua doubled off the center-field wall to score two runs, then Conquistadores shortstop McKenna Arriola made an errant throw to first that allowed the tying run to score. Ramona Robledo’s sacrifice fly to right scored Brittany Moeai with the go-ahead run.

“I was really confident that we would get [El Camino Real pitcher Karyn Wright] eventually because our team has been making adjustments all year,” said junior Tautalafua, who began the game with a state-leading 15 home runs and is committed to Long Beach State. “On the double, I thought when it left the bat it was over the fence, but it scored a couple so it doesn’t matter.”

The No. 2-seeded Colts (27-3) carried a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning and tacked on two insurance runs when Wright threw late to the plate after bobbling a comebacker with the bases loaded, and Tautalafua followed with an RBI groundout.

Carson third baseman Alicia Barajas threw out Arriola, Whitney West and Dylann O’Connor in the bottom of the inning to clinch the 19th victory for senior pitcher Crystal Maas, who got a taste of what it will be like playing on the same diamond for Northridge next season.

“It was a big game, and I was really nervous at the start,” said Maas, who had five strikeouts en route to her 14th complete game. “By the third inning, I kind of settled down and got into my groove. The more mistakes they made, the more relaxed we got. There are no words to describe this.”

Wright (24-4) had 10 strikeouts for the top-seeded Conquistadores (24-5), who were denied a 14th City title.

“She pitched well enough to win,” El Camino Real Coach Lori Chandler said of her junior pitcher, who ended the season with 185 strikeouts in 174 innings. “The bottom line is you can’t make six errors — not in a championship game or a pick-up game. We had 17 errors all season and a third of that in one game.”

West led off the bottom of the first with an infield single, O’Connor popped out trying to bunt, Dani Gilmore singled, and Emily Waterbury walked to load the bases. Perez hit a sharp grounder off Ramos’ glove that caromed toward second base, two runs scoring on the error.

Gilmore led off the third by drilling a changeup over the head of center fielder Brittanie Lamotte for a triple. After Waterbury walked, Perez hit a foul ball that Ramos caught near the first base dugout.

Gilmore alertly sprinted for home and beat the throw to give El Camino Real a 3-0 lead.

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