CITY SECTION SOFTBALL SEMIFINALS : Shelburne, Jones Help Dethrone San Pedro

Powered by Ramona Shelburne’s bat and Tami Jones’ right arm, El Camino Real High defeated San Pedro, 3-1, Tuesday in a City Section 4-A Division softball semifinal at South Gate Park.

The second-seeded Conquistadores (16-4) exorcised some bad karma from last season, when they were upset by Granada Hills in the semifinals on the same field. El Camino Real advances to Tuesday’s division final at UCLA’s Easton Stadium against top-seeded Kennedy.

“Same field, same dugout, a lot of similar plays but with different results,” said Shelburne, who scored El Camino Real’s first run and drove in its second. “We were being real superstitious. We tried not to warm up the same way, to throw in different groups than we did last year.”

Shelburne slid home to give the Conquistadores a 1-0 lead in the second, driven in by Lisa Brende’s squeeze bunt. Shelburne tripled to lead off the inning.

Defending champion and third-seeded San Pedro (16-7-1) tied the score on Darlene Caracoza’s run-scoring single in the fifth after El Camino Real stranded three runners in the third and two in the fourth.

El Camino Real broke the game open in the seventh. No. 9 hitter Ciana Baca reached first on a one-out error by San Pedro second baseman Liz Gutierrez and the Conquistadores loaded the bases on singles by Jones and Kristi Nicklaus.

Shelburne beat out a grounder to Caracoza at shortstop, with Baca scoring the go-ahead run. Jones scored from second when Caracoza threw the ball away with a hopeless throw to first.

Jones (13-2), pitched a six-hitter, striking out three and walking three.

“I wasn’t trying to overpower people,” Jones said. “I pitch better when I tell myself that I’m just going to do well enough to keep us in it. I know my defense is always strong enough for that approach.”

The Conquistadores sparkled in the field. Catcher Kristin Gutekunst picked a pair of San Pedro runners off first, ending one Pirate at-bat and short-circuiting another. First baseman Brende made several putouts on sharply hit balls, and the team saved another run by trapping Gutierrez in a rundown when she rounded third on a third-inning single by Caracoza.

San Pedro’s Heather Grice (11-3) pitched a five-hitter, striking out four and walking two.