Softball: For Simi Valley, the real proof begins now

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Simi Valley plays its first Southern Section-Toyota Division I playoff game Tuesday when it plays host to Trabuco Hills (17-12-1) in a second-round game. The top-seeded Pioneers (27-0) received a bye and haven’t played in 12 days.

It’s a game that Simi Valley should win. The Pioneers have won 14 games by shutout. On the occasions when they were vulnerable, they still scored 7-6 and 8-5 victories. Trabuco Hills has won 14 of its last 16. It has shown it can beat the good teams and be beaten by average teams. The Mustangs should be fired up, but there’s no telling how good they will be.

For a second-round game involving an undefeated team -- ranked third in the state and No. 12 in the nation, no less -- this seemingly innocent pairing sparks an unusually high interest level.

Which leads me to share a conversation that I had three or four times in the past week. The points went something like this:

1. To its credit, Simi Valley has not lost any silly games -- unlike, say, Corona Santiago. For that, the Pioneers deserve all the credit in the world.

2. Simi Valley owned Thousand Oaks and beat the Lancers three times. Impressive.

3. The ‘proof’ that Simi Valley is the best team around is its performance against Thousand Oaks. Outside of TO, the Pioneers haven’t really played the kind of schedule that most No. 1 seeded teams play in a typical year (Crescenta Valley’s schedule will be the subject of a different blog).

4. Beating a good team three times is difficult. Beating a good team from your own league three times is really difficult.

5).Beating a good team three times is not the same as beating three good teams once.

Just something to think about.

-- Martin Henderson