Ocean View softball shuts out South El Monte in CIF Division 5 opener

After her team’s playoff opener, Ocean View High softball coach Keala Cordeiro was able to laugh about the fact that one of her players had told her it didn’t feel like the postseason had begun until they arrived at the field.

As winners of their final seven regular season games, the Seahawks had been playing like a team ready to meet the moment. Since the draw had come out over the weekend, Cordeiro had been champing at the bit to get it started.

Ocean View made an early lead stand up, as the visiting Seahawks defeated South El Monte 4-0 on Friday to begin their run in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs.

“I’ve been anxious all week, so I have a different mindset,” a jovial Cordeiro said. “They were ready, and I just got to keep them relaxed, no matter what, and just keep telling them that even though it is CIF, it’s just another game, and we have to take it one game at a time.”

Two-run innings in the first and second allowed Ocean View starter Kaitlyn Knobbe to settle in. She scattered eight hits and two walks in a complete game, a feat accomplished without the benefit of a strikeout. The Seahawks recorded a shutout for the fourth time this season, their first since a 15-0 win over Century on Feb. 18.

“It feels amazing,” Knobbe said of pitching a shutout in the playoffs. “I’m still shaking from it. The whole game, my adrenaline was just keeping me going.”

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Knobbe stranded four runners between the first and second innings, before retiring eight in a row, a stretch that ended in the fifth. She was assisted by a couple of untraditional plays from her defense.

Nadine Gutierrez dropped a hit in front of right fielder Sydney Fullbright to lead off the bottom of the second. The ball bounced away from Fullbright, but second baseman Sienna Erskine tracked it down. She got the ball to shortstop Ashley Capelouto, whose relay throw reached third baseman Kaylah Arteaga in time to cut down Gutierrez trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

Following a walk in the fifth, Knobbe threw late to third with Alyssa Hernandez executing a delayed steal. Loreli Castrejon, who had walked on the pitch, attempted to move up to second, but Arteaga threw over to the bag. She was tagged out before Hernandez could cross the plate, ending the inning.

“I always tell them that we have to look ahead,” Cordeiro said of her team’s defense. “We can’t just settle on that one play. Even the one where the girl stole, and [the trail runner] thought she was going to make it to [second], we always have to have that second out. Always what’s after the play, not just that play.”

South El Monte (15-9), the Mission Valley League champion, had won 12 games in a row entering the playoffs.

Ocean View (17-5) remains on the road to face Alhambra Mark Keppel in the second round on Tuesday. The Seahawks will hope success at the top of the order travels, too.

Center fielder Kaya Collado and left fielder Emily Mayorga combined for four of the Seahawks’ five hits. Each had an opposite-field single to drive in a run in the second. Arteaga’s single to begin the inning accounted for the other hit.

“My emotions were happy and relieved because as a freshman here, I’m actually kind of nervous playing with these big girls,” Mayorga said. “But they definitely cheer me up, and I’m really happy to have them.”