Softball: Oak Park throwing Rice at tougher competition

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I’m guessing there’s been a least a few folks out in the blogosphere who’ve been wondering why Oak Park has been a no-show in my weekly regional softball rankings. Of course, I’m sure it’s an elite few since no one from the VC tried to change my mind through face-to-face or electronic-blackboard intimidation, er, suggestion.

So I can only assume by your silence that, like me, you thought the Eagles’ schedule was a little wimpy -- making it difficult trying to decipher how well Julia Rice was actually pitching when the Purdue-bound junior was striking out 15 batters on any given afternoon.

Well, thanks to the Eagles’ 3-0 victory over Camarillo in the Thousand Oaks tournament on Saturday, I can wholeheartedly say Oak Park is among the best teams in the region. Unfortunately, this belated revelation doesn’t have much pop to it because everybody knows Rice has been the primary catalyst for the Eagles’ 16-4 season.

Rice has a 14-0 record thanks to a microscopic 0.14 ERA (two earned runs in more than 100 innings), and her 200 strikeouts is tops in the region. And, against a hard-hitting Camarillo team, she allowed only three hits. When she’s on her game, the Eagles can beat pretty much beat anyone as long as Sarah Rosenberg, Jen Colquhoun and Brett Hall can provide a smidgen of run support.

Still, I’m not fully convinced Oak Park is an elite squad. Yeah, there’s a chance they’ll crack my Monday rankings, but I won’t be totally convinced of the Eagles’ complete-team talents until I see what they can do against Thousand Oaks in the tournament semifinals on Saturday.

I’ve seen TO enough times to know it’s the real deal, so a victory over the Lancers will say a lot about Oak Park’s Division III title aspirations.

I just wished they’d scheduled a game or two against Crescenta Valley or Burbank.

-- Austin Knoblauch