Huntington Beach, Marina reach semifinals of Michelle Carew Classic
After another storm impacted the scheduling for the Michelle Carew Classic — cutting it down to two days of play — a couple of local softball teams produced better than fair showings in the restructured tournament.
Huntington Beach and Marina both reached the semifinals of the Sweet Sixteen bracket, earning notable wins along the way in a weekend spent at Peralta Canyon Park in Anaheim.
A dramatic opening day saw Marina notch extra-inning wins over Esperanza, 6-3, and Murrieta Mesa, 6-1. The Aztecs and Rams entered the week ranked No. 6 and No. 3, respectively, in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll.
“We just have slowly been putting it together,” said Shelly Luth, who co-coaches Marina along with Dan Hay. “We’ve got really good senior leadership. We have a freshman pitcher on the mound who is really good. She’s competitive, and the whole team has got fantastic chemistry, and I think that’s the difference is the chemistry on the team. It gels. It’s working, and we are there to battle every game and do our very best. We’re all committed to one another.”
Center fielder Makayla Mathis had a four-hit game against Esperanza, while shortstop Anaya Togia homered against Murrieta Mesa. Freshman pitcher Mia Valbuena, an all-tournament team selection, covered all 16 innings Friday for the Vikings.
Marina (17-3), the top-ranked team in Division 2, was silenced by Mountain View St. Francis in the semifinals. Boise State-bound Shannon Keighran struck out seven in a no-hitter, as the Lancers edged the Vikings 1-0 Saturday afternoon.
“I noticed in like the fourth inning, but I was like, ‘Nope, not happening,’” Keighran said of not letting the no-hit bid become a distraction. “I changed my mindset and just kept grinding.”
Alexis O’Gorman, a UC San Diego commit, homered to start the fourth. In the bottom half of the inning, she robbed Rachel Ruiz of a game-tying home run, flipping over the fence as she made the catch.
“I love robbing home runs,” O’Gorman said when asked which she enjoyed more. “I think it’s so fun. I’ve actually never hit a home run before in a high school game, so I think hitting it was really fun, too. Probably robbing the home run, though, just because [Keighran] got a no-hitter out of it, and it really helped the team.”
Huntington Beach authored wins over top-ranked Norco, 2-0, and Canyon View by a count of 8-5 on Friday. Los Alamitos, which went on to win the tournament, beat the Oilers 12-3 in the semifinals.
Zoe Prystajko, the Stanford-bound ace of the Oilers, had 17 strikeouts in the nine-inning win over the Cougars.
“Zoe was amazing,” Huntington Beach coach Jeff Forsberg said, recalling a number of close calls against Norco. “The kids played great, the energy level was up. We’ve always been knocking on the door, could never move on through the door with Grace [Uribe], Devyn [Greer] and all those kids. This time, Zoe just went through the door and pushed the door open.”
Sophia Knight and Prystajko were named to the all-tournament team for Huntington Beach (10-4), Forsberg said. The Oilers finished third in the bracket with Marina forfeiting the third-place game.
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