Softball: Don’t miss Thousand Oaks tournament final
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The Thousand Oaks tournament concludes Saturday and, for most of the teams involved, it will be their last taste of top-notch competition before the playoffs begin.
Tournament hosts Thousant Oaks and Foothill League front-runners Hart are favored to meet in the championship game at 7 p.m., assuming, of course, they get past the semifinals.
Oak Park‘s Julia Rice is a regular hit killer and I’m really interested to know how she’ll do against the TO lineup (though unfortunately, I won’t be sitting behind the chain-link fence for this one). The Lancers are the most-talented team Oak Park will meet in the regular season and a victory over the Marmonte League‘s second-place team will prove the Eagles are the clear-cut favorites for the Division III title.
Still, I’m picking Hart to take overall honors at this Conejo Valley meeting of softball titans.
The Indians are coming off a blood-boiling 2-1 loss to crosstown rival Valencia on Thursday, and I’m sure semifinal foe Riverside Poly is going to feel the brunt of the Indians’ title-sharing frustration. And even if you dismiss the emotional factor from the equation, the bat-numbing talents of Hart pitcher Destiny Rodino, pictured, should be too much for Poly to handle.
-- Austin Knoblauch
