Angelo Enjoys Easy Stroll

The easy games are over for the Thousand Oaks High softball team.

With ace Nicole Angelo taking care of business again, the Lancers enjoyed what should be the last of their leisurely strolls to victory.

Angelo threw a two-hitter and struck out 10, and the Lancers erupted for nine hits in the final five innings for a 5-0 victory over host Hueneme in a Southern Section Division II second-round playoff game.

“It gets real tight [starting] now,” Coach Gary Walin of Thousand Oaks said.

Thousand Oaks (24-5-1), ranked No. 3 in the region by The Times, plays No. 4 Hart (23-5) in a quarterfinal Thursday at Thousand Oaks Community Park.

Although Hueneme (18-8) enjoyed its finest season in decades, the Vikings were no match for the Lancers.

The only Viking to muster a hit off Angelo (24-4) was junior third baseman Erica Mijares. She entered the game batting .515.

“I knew [she was good] just by the way she was standing when she was at-bat,” Angelo said.

Thousand Oaks, which defeated Buena, 4-0, in a first-round game, got off to a slow start against the Vikings as Monica Cerda retired the first eight Lancers.

“I was a little disappointed with the way we started off the game, but the girls made an adjustment and did fine,” Walin said.

Once the Lancers got going, there was no slowing them.

Thousand Oaks got its first hit in the third on Andi Keesling’s bunt.

The first run came in the fourth.

Jenni Perez led off the inning with a blast just inside the left-field foul line and bounced into dead-ball territory for a triple.

Two batters later, Perez scored on Jenny Cochran’s sacrifice fly to center field.

The Lancers scored in the fifth on Sheridan Fowler’s single.

Trailing, 2-0, Hueneme had a chance to tie the score in the sixth after putting runners at second and third and two out.

But Angelo, who walked one, struck out Crystal Palomares to end the threat.

Hueneme stranded five runners, including four in scoring position.

“Nicole got the best of them when she needed to,” Walin said.

Thousand Oaks parlayed three hits and an error into a three-run seventh.

Jennifer Herrera led off the inning with a triple and scored on Michelle Spencer’s single to center.

Two more runs scored on an error and Fowler’s soft line single up the middle.