Southern Section Girls’ Softball Finals : Cypress Beats Thousand Oaks for 4-A Championship

Nicky Luce’s 69th career victory for Cypress High School wasn’t perfect. For that she can thank Julie Chellevold, who had three singles.

As it turned out, none of the hits mattered, since Luce shut out the rest of the Thousand Oaks softball team, and Cypress won the Southern Section 4-A championship, 5-0, Saturday at Mayfair Park in Lakewood.

Luce struck out 11 and allowed only Chellevold and sister Amy to reach base (on an error in the sixth inning). She finished her career two wins behind the Southern Section all-time win mark of 71.

“I didn’t know who was who, she just had my number,” Luce said of Julie Chellevold.

“The key was our kids came out and hit the ball and Nicky did her usual job,” Cypress Coach Tom Farr said.

Luce ended the season 21-5 for the Centurions, who finished 22-8 and were only third in the Empire League.

Cypress got off to a fast start with two runs in the third, and Luce did the rest. Luce also had three hits, including a double that scored catcher Diane Pohl for the Centurions first run in the third.

Joanne Brodeur followed with a double, scoring Luce.

Cypress added three runs in the sixth, taking advantage of two Thousand Oaks errors, a walk, an infield single by Pohl and a single to left by Sandy Buckner.

Thousand Oaks did not have a runner past second and had two on in the sixth when, with two out, Julie Chellevold reached on an infield single and Amy Chellevold got to first on an error by first baseman Valorie Sucatre.

But Jamie Heggen, the next batter, grounded back to Luce.

In the seventh, Luce struck out the final two batters of the game.

Thousand Oaks finished at 23-9.

Santa Maria St. Joseph 8, Santa Paula 1--The Knights scored five runs in the sixth inning to break open a 2-1 game and won the 1-A title. Pitcher Julie Rome struck out 13 and allowed only three hits for St. Joseph. Catcher Julie Grennan had two hits and scored three runs for the Knights. Julie Coert’s second-inning double drove in Santa Paula’s only run.

Bel-Air Prep 2, Norwalk Leffingwell Christian 0--Pitcher Chrissy Peck, a freshman, had 15 strikeouts to lead the Bruins (20-6) to the Small Schools championship. Peck, who also had two singles and scored a run, gave up two hits. Pitcher Tammy Capilla had nine strikeouts, a double and four stolen bases for Leffingwell (20-4).

Fullerton Sunny Hills 4, Diamond Bar 0--Ruby Flores had 13 strikeouts and pitched a one-hitter as the Lancers won the 3-A title late Friday night. Sunny Hills scored two runs in the first inning, and Flores struck out 8 of the first 9 batters she faced. Flores also drove a run in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly.