No. 1 Burbank High softball team falls in second round of playoffs

The No. 1 seed in the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs held a great deal of prestige for the Burbank High softball team.

It also held a lot of weight.

For the second straight season, the Bulldogs entered the postseason tournament with a top-two seeding, and for the second straight year the team didn’t survive the second round.

The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs saw their season end Thursday when they suffered a 5-2 loss to Palos Verdes on the road.

In 2013, No. 2 Burbank lost to Sunny Hills in the second round, 8-7.

“One thing that we talked about is that we hadn’t lost a game since March 14,” said Burbank first-year Coach Mike Delaney, whose team came into Thursday’s contest with a 22-game winning streak. “We really didn’t remember what it’s like to lose. And although you can try and duplicate some things in practice, you can’t really match that feeling deep in the pit of your stomach when you lose.

“I don’t think it was the pressure that got to them, I just think the long season and all they went through just kind of wore on them.”

The loss ends a season in which the Bulldogs (25-4) captured their second straight outright Pacific League championship.

Burbank took on a Palos Verdes (22-6) team that had enjoyed its share of success as well after placing second in the Bay League. The win was the second straight in the playoffs for the Sea Kings over a league champion, as they knocked off Freeway League titlist La Habra, 5-1, in a first-round matchup Tuesday.

“They were good contact hitters and they did come up with some good hits,” Delaney said of Palos Verdes. “But it was nothing that we hadn’t seen before this season. But I think we had runners on base in just about every inning and we only got two runs out of it.”

Things got off to an even start for the teams, as they battled to a 2-2 tie after the first inning. However, Palos Verdes was able to tack on one more run in the fourth and two in the fifth, while keeping the Bulldogs scoreless over the course of the next six innings.

The Bulldogs could manage just three hits, compared to five for the Sea Kings.

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Follow Jeff Tully on Twitter: @jefftsports.