Carson Is Heart of the City

Coach Joe Sponsler’s sanity? Questioned.

His softball team? Doubted.

Any concerns? Unwarranted.

Carson, one of the best teams from the City Section, doesn’t have to take a back seat to the best teams in the Southern Section anymore.

At least not with Danira Iolamo pitching.

The Santa Ana Foothill Roundtable Invitational concludes today at Hillview School, and though the champion probably will be Norco or Garden Grove Pacifica, ranked second and third in the Southland by The Times, No. 13 Carson has created the tournament’s biggest buzz.

A City Section runner-up for five consecutive seasons but an unknown quantity among the Southern Section’s elite teams, Carson stepped onto the field in the tournament’s first two rounds of pool play last Saturday against teams with national reputations and delivered a message.

“I think we were a big surprise to a lot of people,” Sponsler said of a victory and an extra-inning loss. “There was a lot of talk about why we were even here, a question of why a City team was invited.”

The invitation came after Riverside King pulled out of the tournament and Foothill was scrambling for a replacement. As word spread that Carson was taking on the Southern Section powers, Sponsler said he got some unusual looks.

“Even at the Downey tournament, we were talking about the Foothill tournament, and people were saying you might have bit off more than you can chew,” Sponsler said. “Well, we’ll spit it out and take a smaller bite, but right now, we’re hungry. We wanted to see how we stacked up.”

Carson crushed Foothill, ranked No. 14 at the time, for seven doubles, five of them in a row, in a 6-0 victory. It then lost to Pacifica, 1-0, in eight innings.

“We play like that all the time,” Iolamo said. “I feel we opened some eyes. We’re representing the whole City Section.”

Iolamo, who has committed to UC Riverside, gave up five hits and one unearned run and had 24 strikeouts in the two games. Against Pacifica’s highly regarded Brittany Weil, who gave up three hits and struck out nine, Iolamo gave up four hits and struck out 10. She is 7-2 and has 83 strikeouts, giving up 14 hits and no earned runs in 60 innings. Opponents are batting .071 against her.

Jim Stone, coach of No. 20 Sun Valley Village Christian (6-2), the defending Division V champion that plays Carson (12-2) today at 9 a.m., was another Carson observer.

“I heard several comments in the bleachers that [Iolamo] was a lot more polished pitcher than what we probably would have expected coming out of the City Section,” he said. “The thing that impressed me was their coaching staff had them prepared and ready to play.

“They were the unknown team and nobody knew what to expect, and they put on a very good show.”

Carson was 26-6 last season but has lost the last four City championship games to San Pedro and fell to Woodland Hills El Camino Real in the 1999 final.

Carson’s offense is powered by Christina Schallig, a sophomore shortstop batting. 477 with 17 runs batted in. The defense is anchored by senior third baseman Liz Vasquez and center fielder Krissy Sefe.

Sponsler said Carson wouldn’t fall off the map after Iolamo graduated, and his days of trying to convince top-caliber opponents to play the Colts might be over.

Pacifica Coach Rob Weil said he’s up for scheduling a nonleague game.

“They were well-coached, well-disciplined, very sportsmanlike,” Weil said. “I was very impressed with the program. The hotbed of softball is Orange County, and for a City team to come in and do as well as they did, they had to feel pretty good about themselves.”