Top-Seeded Pacifica Ousted, 1-0

Junior Samantha Hamner pitched a perfect game and Rosey Neill homered to center field with two out in the top of the first inning as Laguna Hills stunned top-seeded Garden Grove Pacifica, 1-0, Friday in the first round of the Southern Section Division I softball playoffs.

Pacifica (26-4-1), the No. 1 team in the Southland and the state, had won consecutive championships in Division III but moved up in class this season. The Mariners had won five titles since 1997.

Laguna Hills (20-7-2) last won a title in 1993. It finished fourth in the Sea View League and was an at-large entry.

“She pitched a great game against us and they played defense behind her; it’s not like she overpowered us,” losing Coach Rob Weil said of Hamner. “It’s just one of those days.”

Hamner (14-6) struck out only four in her first perfect game and outdueled Iowa-bound Brittany Weil (23-3), a senior who had won her 100th game last week. Weil gave up only three hits, including a single and double to Meghan Morese, struck out eight and hit a batter.

Martin Henderson

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Baseball

Anaheim Esperanza senior Shane Aguilar, starting at third base in place of injured Kyle Muhlsteff, sliced a one-out double down the left-field line in the seventh inning off Chino left-hander Luis Hernandez to lift the Aztecs to a 4-3 victory in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

Aguilar entered the game with only three hits in 23 at-bats, all for extra bases.

Chino (20-7) was one of six league champions to lose in the first round of the Division I playoffs. The Sierra League co-champions tied the score, 3-3, with three runs in the fifth inning, the big blow a two-run homer by Vince Vadney.

Foothill League champion and third-seeded Saugus lost to Moorpark, 5-0, and Moore champion Long Beach Wilson fell, 1-0, in eight innings to Santa Margarita. South Coast champion Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley and Sunset co-champions Huntington Beach Marina and Los Alamitos also lost.

Dan Arritt

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Diving

Lake Balboa Birmingham senior Hector Escamilla won his third consecutive boys’ title and Woodland Hills Taft senior Rachel Pearson took her second girls’ title in four years during the City Section finals at Pierce College.