Youth Movement Sparks Cajon

If Jerry Tivey is watching his young team play but picturing other players, please forgive him.

It’s a natural reaction.

Three of his six freshman starters are sisters of players who have graduated through the Cajon High softball program.

The youth corps has the Cowboys at 17-4 this season and coming off a third-place finish at the Santa Maria Righetti Best of the West tournament.

“It’s the best freshman class we’ve ever had,” said Tivey, in his 13th year at Cajon. “I’m able to put everyone at her true position.”

Cajon (17-4) has won six of the last 10 San Andreas League titles, 12 overall. This week, it moved into The Times’ rankings at No. 25.

“We’re really balanced,” Tivey said. “We have six lefties who can slap, have excellent speed [and are] good defensively.

“It’s going well. We actually have a better team than last year [because] these freshmen are ready to play.”

Last year, the Cowboys featured one of the better pitchers in the Southland in Roxy Moran, now a freshman at Cal State Fullerton.

“If Roxy had this group behind her,” Tivey said, “we could have won it all.”

Among the freshman starters is infielder Nicole Kajitani, whose older sister, Maria, was a four-time all-league catcher who went on to play at UC Riverside.

Kajitani’s impact is perhaps most obvious. She displaced the Cowboys’ only senior starter, Tracy Tumbleson, who had been a two-time all-leaguer, and didn’t make an error at shortstop last season. Kajitani has since moved to third base.

Freshman left fielder Jennifer Mullen’s sister, Lynn, was a four-time all-league center fielder for Cajon and is a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, but doesn’t play softball.

Freshman second baseman Melissa Castillo, who also has played third base and outfield, is the younger sister of Nicole Ramos, who was a freshman shortstop when Cajon reached its only Southern Section final in 1995.

Kajitani said her older sister has played an important role in teaching her about Cajon’s heritage. “Not only did I learn while watching her,” she said, “but I’m learning it right now. I talk to her after every game.”

There is also a special bond between the team’s youngsters, she said, because they watched their sisters play together and have grown up in the program.

The other freshman starters are right fielder Lauren Colunga, designated hitter-first baseman Jessica Nelson and catcher Laura Briones, whose 27 runs batted in is four shy of the school record.

Kajitani, who moved from the No. 2 spot to the top of the batting order for the Righetti tournament, is batting .463, has scored 25 runs, has 18 RBIs and 26 stolen bases. She was selected to the all-tournament team along with junior Erica Meza.

At the Righetti tournament, Cajon defeated Goleta Dos Pueblos, which was ranked No. 23 in the Southland by The Times, in the third-place game.

Among other victories are a 3-1 win over Sacramento Sheldon, which was ranked No. 9 in the state. The only loss was to the host school, Righetti, 4-3, in eight innings.

Cajon’s No. 1 pitcher, junior Kelli MacKenzie, is 15-1, and hasn’t lost since the first game this season.

“Usually, when you’re a freshman, you’re jittery and have some mistakes, and we’ve had some of those mistakes,” MacKenzie said. “But overall, they’ve done really well. They’re a lot better than I expected them to be.”

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Thousand Oaks was stung last week when its leading pitcher, senior Mandy Kilionski, was ruled academically ineligible for the remainder of the season. Kilionski was 6-3 with a 0.35 earned-run average and had 131 strikeouts in 79 innings.

“Arguably, we lost our best player,” said Coach Gary Walin, whose team dropped from No. 8 to No. 18 this week.

That will focus the spotlight on Suzanne Cominski, a sophomore who shared pitching duties with Kilionski, and junior Megan Spehar, who pitched last season until Kilionski, a transfer from Simi Valley, became eligible for the last half of the season.

Spehar, in her first outing this season, beat Saugus with a two-hitter, including 10 strikeouts, on Saturday. She beat Los Alamitos, 3-0, on a three-hitter Monday.

“It’s a lot different without her, but we all know it’s time to bond together,” Cominski said. “We have real nice team chemistry, everyone knows their job and everyone will try their best. And that’s all we can do.”

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One of the best games of the season was played in the semifinals of the Woodbridge tournament Saturday, when Garden Grove Pacifica defeated Corona, 1-0.

Corona sophomore Brittney Bargar didn’t give up a hit to the Southland’s No. 2 team for 6 1/3 innings, but then Jodie Legaspi singled to right, stole second base and scored on Jamie Waldecker’s single to center.

Bargar finished with a three-hitter, and winning pitcher Brittany Weil had a two-hitter.

Most impressive is that Corona played without six players, who were getting ready for the prom. Only three players were in their right positions against Pacifica.

“We couldn’t play much better with the other girls here,” Coach Jo Ann Byrd said. “I told them, ‘If we play like that against [Corona] Santiago, if we play like that the rest of the season, we’ll be OK.’ ”

Corona, ranked sixth, plays host to No. 1 Santiago today.