Pacifica Counting on Pitching to Help It Reach the Top

The Fountain Valley softball tournament had just ended, and Mater Dei Coach Doug Myers, in accepting a second-place trophy, turned to Foothill’s team and said, “We’ll see you in the [Southern Section] finals.”

It was a gracious moment, but Pacifica Coach Rob Weil, standing behind the backstop, did a slow burn.

“We’ll play them between the lines,” Weil said. “We have the two best pitchers in the county. If we score some runs, we’ll be fine.”

Before the season Mater Dei had been touted as the best Orange County team in nearly two decades. Though most teams fear the Monarchs, the team Mater Dei fears is Pacifica.

Those “two best pitchers” are sophomore Amanda Freed (14-0, 0.29 earned-run average last year) and junior Toni Mascarenas (13-3, 0.19). Mater Dei lost only five games last year, three of them to Pacifica--a point Myers reminds anyone who will listen.

Mater Dei returned all but one starter. Pacifica returned both pitchers. And what of Foothill, currently ranked No. 1 in Orange County and the Southern Section, and ranked No. 2 in the state?

Foothill already has been beaten by Pacifica, 4-1.

All of which creates a stirring debate--at least in Weil’s mind--over who is really the No. 1 team in Orange County. All three teams are ranked among the state’s top four, behind Fresno Bullard, according to Cal-Hi Sports.

Foothill (13-1) is No. 1 in the section by virtue of its victory over Mater Dei (15-1) in a game decided by the international tie-breaker. Even though Pacifica (13-1) has a victory over Foothill, the Mariners were beaten by Huntington Beach in the Fountain Valley tournament--also by tiebreaker.

“Like I told the kids, being No. 1 would be great--we deserve to be No. 1,” Weil said. “We know how hard we worked. We played Foothill in the Laguna Hills tournament and I thought we handled them pretty well. I felt after that game we definitely would get the respect of being 1 or 2.”

Why is it important? All three will be in the Division I playoffs, and the top-ranked team, in theory, gets an easier path to the finals. As it stands now, Foothill would play the fourth-seeded team in the semifinals, Mater Dei and Pacifica would play each other. Last year, Foothill was No. 1 and Pacifica No. 2, but both lost in the quarterfinals.

But Mascarenas and Freed aren’t bothered by it. Pacifica has nearly all the advantages of being No. 1 without the pressures of actually being No. 1.

“You don’t have anything to live up to,” Freed said. “You don’t have to show anyone anything or prove to anybody ‘This is why I’m No. 1 in the county.’ You can just go out and show people and have them realize, ‘Yeah, they are pretty good.’ ”

How good?

“Right now,” Mascarenas said, “I feel we can beat anybody.”

She feels that way for good reason. Mascarenas, a two-time Times Orange County all-county player, is batting .370. Five of the next six batters in the lineup are hitting at least .400--freshman third baseman Toria Auelua (.410), senior first baseman Andrea Pickett (.400), senior catcher Natasha Sisco (.484), Freed (.400) and freshman designated hitter Amanda Hallaway (.409).

“[Run production] was my biggest fear this year,” Weil said, “but we’ve been scoring runs and hitting the ball in key situations.”

Mascarenas, batting leadoff, has scored 73% of the times she’s gotten on base to begin a game. And one run is usually plenty.

“The unknown talent is what makes us so scary,” Freed said. “There’s a lot of people on our team who aren’t widely known, who don’t have the big names, and other teams don’t know what they can do. . . . This team does not just consist of me and Toni, or Toni and Tasha [Sisco].”

Maybe not, but Freed (6-0, 0.19 ERA this season) and Mascarenas (5-1, 0.49) are clearly the hub. And indicative of their seasons is the recollection of freshman left fielder Debbie Mastergeorge.

Asked what really amazes her about Mascarenas and Freed, she said two images come to mind: Mascarenas hitting a homer over the fence at Garden Grove, and Freed going deep at Pacifica.

Even though they give Pacifica the most formidable pitching staff in the county, a teammate’s most compelling image is their offense.

In fact, it was on offense that Mascarenas first realized she fit into a varsity game.

“I tripled in my first at-bat in my first game,” she said. “They were a good team, and I didn’t really expect to get a hit. I was a little intimidated, but I got my confidence that I could play as well as anyone else could.”

The opponent? Mater Dei.

But it will be six weeks before Pacifica gets its chance to meet the Monarchs--or Foothill--in the playoffs to prove who’s truly No. 1. For now, the Mariners must settle for the Woodbridge tournament that begins Saturday. Until May 17 and the start of the Southern Section playoffs, Pacifica will bide its time. Restlessly.

“I wish,” Mascarenas said, “the playoffs started today.”