Los Alamitos rallies past Huntington Beach for Sunset League softball title
Huntington Beach was five outs away from a most joyous win in Tuesday’s regular season finale, but a chance to share the Sunset League title quickly turned to despair.
A three-run lead slipped away in the span of three batters, and the fire could not be put out in an eight-run seventh inning, as Los Alamitos celebrated an 11-4 victory to claim the outright league championship on the Oilers’ home field.
“We were just wanting to have a league championship by ourselves,” Los Alamitos coach Rob Weil said. “We didn’t want to share it with anybody.
Zoe Prystajko (13 strikeouts), the Stanford-committed, left-handed ace of the Oilers, had shut the door since loading the bases in the first inning. She had retired 15 in a stretch of 16 batters, before she hit catcher Allyssa Ramos with a pitch.
That directly preceded an opposite-field home run by third baseman Gabby Terrones, one that grazed off the glove of left fielder Cali Bennett as she collided with the fence.
Two batters later, with the Oilers still clinging to a 3-2 lead, right fielder Callie Fitzpatrick came to the plate. Twice a strikeout victim against riseballs heading into the at-bat, Fitzpatrick hammered a two-strike offering over the wall in center to tie the score.
“She’s a big-time player,” Weil said of Fitzpatrick. “Big-time situations, those are the kids you want. I don’t [care] if she strikes out five times, you still want that kid to have the opportunity to … tie a game or to win a game.”
When the seventh came around, Huntington Beach (16-7, 10-2 in the Sunset League) could not stop the bleeding. Left fielder Camryn Johnson’s popped-up bunt evaded hard-charging third baseman Saige Anderson, loading the bases once more for Los Alamitos (20-5, 12-0) without the ball leaving the infield.
Second baseman Isabella Rodriguez delivered the go-ahead hit, and the floodgates opened from there. First baseman Cienna Kowaleski and Johnson each had two-run singles in the inning, and two additional runs scored on wild pitches that went to the backstop.
“In this game, [Bennett] almost catches the [Terrones home run], and we probably win the game,” Huntington Beach coach Jeff Forsberg said. “It’s truly a game of inches.”
Huntington Beach threatened in the third inning. Designated player Preslee Brower doubled to lead off the inning. Anderson followed with a bunt single, and Bennett walked to load the bases. A deep fly ball to center stayed in the park off the bat of shortstop Liah Lummus, ending the scoring opportunity.
The Oilers came right back in the fourth inning and capitalized. Infield singles by center fielder Morgan Drotter and Prystajko set the table. After an Anderson walk, the bases were loaded again.
Second baseman Macy Fuller grounded a ball to the left side of the infield and beat the throw. Two runs came in to score on the play, and another came in on an error, spotting the Oilers a 3-0 advantage.
Bennett rounded the bases on a misplayed single that went to the center field wall in the seventh.
The CIF Southern Section will release its softball playoff pairings on Saturday at 10 a.m.
“We just need to learn to finish games,” Forsberg said. “We just don’t know how to finish games, and that’s our goal, but like I told them, you get to the playoffs and only one team finishes — the team that wins. There’s only one team that finishes, so why can’t it be us?”
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