It’s Getting Hard to Ignore Streak

The Thousand Oaks High softball team is on the verge of something spectacular.

But none of the Lancers want to talk about it.

Not yet, anyway.

Thousand Oaks is just three victories away from becoming only the third team in the 25-year history of the Marmonte League to go undefeated in league play.

“I really don’t want to talk about that yet,” said Coach Gary Walin following his team’s 1-0 victory over Westlake on Thursday.

Ironically, when Walin found himself mentioning to his players a day later the possibility of an undefeated league season, shortstop Jenny Cochran cut him off. She told him they didn’t want to talk about it. Not now.

And Walin relented.

“I told them I would only bring it up again if it was against Royal in the last [league] game of the season,” he said.

The Lancers (9-0 in league play) resume league play May 2 against Agoura, followed by Moorpark and Royal.

Newbury Park is the only team to go undefeated in league play and the Panthers did it twice--1984 and 1987.

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For two girls who go to different high schools, Julie Watson of Saugus and Jocelyn Evans of Hart have seen quite a bit of each other.

They’ve been competing with and against each other on softball fields since they were 9-year-olds playing in the William S. Hart recreation league.

Next season, Watson and Evans will be wearing the same uniform for the first time since they played for the 14-and-under Valencia Cruisers. Both committed to play for Cal State Fullerton.

“It’s kind of like coming back together after so many years of playing together,” Evans said.

Today the pair will face off again as rivals at 3:30 in a key Foothill League game at Hart.

“We’re really pumped up because we know we need to win,” said Watson, a second baseman who is hitting .380.

Saugus (10-5, 2-1) is one-half game behind first-place Hart (13-3, 2-0).

Evans is just as excited as her childhood friend. “We’re just praying it doesn’t rain,” she said.

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Beware pitchers: she’s baaack.

Senior Oli Keohohou of Newbury Park, a career .475 hitter before this season, broke out of an early-season slump with 11 hits in her last 12 at-bats. The hard-hitting shortstop has raised her batting average from .308 to .451 in the last four games.

Keohohou, The Times’ Ventura County player of the year last season, went six for six against Thousand Oaks and Moorpark last week.

“She’s just in a zone right now,” Coach Lynn Baum said, “and I hope she stays there.”

Keohohou will test one the region’s best pitchers on Wednesday when the Panthers face Crescenta Valley ace Meredith Cervenka in the Downey tournament championship game.

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Speaking of streaky hitters, the batting average of Sheridan Fowler of Thousand Oaks has also been on the rise the last few weeks.

Fowler, a .250 hitter in the Lancers’ first six games, has raised her average more than 150 points to .413 in the last nine games.

The junior third baseman has 14 hits in her last 26 at-bats. She has also accounted for 17 of her team’s 58 stolen bases.