Lupacchini Keeps Chaminade in the Hunt

What in the name of Maureen LeCocq is Chaminade High doing in another softball final?

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year after LeCocq, the national player of the year last season, moved on to Stanford.

Win a few games, earn a playoff spot and build experience for a deeper run in the playoffs, perhaps in 2001 or 2002. Those were realistic goals.

You don’t lose your top player, then start putting down deposits on championship rings. That would have been unrealistic.

But here are the Eagles, primed to defend their Southern Section Division IV championship, when they face Calabasas in the final at 1 p.m. today at Mayfair Park in Lakewood.

There are many reasons for their repeat trip to the precipice of Southland softball, but the primary one can be summed up in two words: Christina Lupacchini.

The sophomore right-hander has stepped from LeCocq’s considerable shadow, throwing fastballs, riseballs, changeups, drops, screwballs and curves to lead Chaminade on an unlikely march through the postseason.

“She knows she has to do it with [Maureen] gone,” first baseman Lindsey Weinstein said. “She’s more than held her own. She’s been unbelievable.”

Lupacchini spent most of her freshman season as designated hitter and studying LeCocq, who finished with 14 consecutive shutouts and 92 consecutive shutout innings.

“I followed her around like she was my big sister,” said Lupacchini, who was 2-3 with a 1.65 earned-run average in limited duty behind The Times’ two-time Valley pitcher of the year. “She guided me, and I learned a lot.”

So much, in fact, that Lupacchini has put up LeCocq-like numbers through most of the playoffs.

Her streak of 59 consecutive scoreless innings was broken Tuesday in a 5-2 semifinal victory over La Puente Bishop Amat.

Lupacchini (17-8) opened the postseason with shutouts against Notre Dame Academy, San Dimas and top-seeded Fullerton Rosary.

Today, she gets the opportunity she dreamed of last June while warming up behind LeCocq during Chaminade’s 10-0 championship-game victory over Bloomington.

She never got the chance to throw a pitch in that game, but Lupacchini wasn’t worried.

“That was the seniors’ turn,” she said. “I figured I had three more years, and I knew we’d get back here.”

At the start of the season, it seemed unlikely.

The Eagles, who play the region’s toughest nonleague schedule, stumbled to a 1-6 start, with Lupacchini losing to, among others, Southland powers Mater Dei (twice), Foothill and Cerritos. Each of those teams is also playing this weekend for a section title.

“It was intimidating at the time, but I think those games made me stronger,” said Lupacchini, who has a 0.48 earned-run average and 192 strikeouts in 190 innings.

Nobody else could tell she was intimidated.

“The maturity and poise she has shown as a sophomore has gone beyond my wildest expectations,” Coach Steve Harrington said.

Lupacchini battled but lost 1-0 decisions to Tia Bollinger of Mater Dei and Jessica van der Linden of Cerritos, considered among the best prep pitchers on the West Coast.

Despite its status as defending champion, Chaminade received little slack from the Southern Section when playoff pairings were announced, treating the Eagles like any other second-place team with a 14-12 record.

To get to the final, they had to defeat three league champions, as well as top-seeded Rosary, which finished second in its league.

Only Weinstein, batting .383, has an average above .287. Chaminade (18-12) has had to rely on slick defense and Lupacchini’s ability to wriggle out of jams, which she has done with the steadiness of a tight-rope walker.

“A lot of times, I’m over on the sidelines, pulling my hair out,” Harrington said. “And she’s on the field, so calm, cool and collected. She’d make a great poker player.”

Harrington’s hairline, as well as Lupacchini’s poise, will be challenged again today by Calabasas, which has four players who have accepted college scholarships.

Calabasas (20-7), making its first appearance in a final, upset No. 2-seeded Harvard-Westlake, 1-0, in the semifinals. Chaminade lost twice to Harvard-Westlake in Mission League play and finished second to the Wolverines.

“But it’s the last four games that count, not the first four,” Lupacchini said. “Most people thought it would take us a couple of years to get back [to the final], but we showed we didn’t need that much time to get back together.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS

SOUTHERN SECTION

Division IV Final

Today, 1 p.m.

At Mayfair Park

Chaminade (18-12) vs.

Calabasas (20-7)

SEE STATS AND LINEUPS, PAGE 5