El Camino Real wins 18th City Section softball title with comeback over Kennedy
Woodland Hills El Camino Real High will hold its commencement ceremony next month and among the students who will walk across the stage that night will be 11 members of the softball team. Coach Jodi Borenstein is going to miss them.
Because on Saturday, Borenstein wrote the names of eight of those seniors into her starting lineup, then watched them smother Granada Hills Kennedy 12-6 to win their third consecutive City Section Open Division softball title. It was the school’s 18th softball championship overall, the most by one school in section history.
“I mean, that’s hard to do, right?” Borenstein asked. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row. It’s hard to win a championship three times in a row. And these girls are just not going to let anyone take that away from them. We’re now on top.”
In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic might have been the only thing that kept the senior class from winning four titles since the 2020 playoffs were canceled.
Jillian Albayati became the first female starting pitcher in Southern Section championship baseball history, but Anaheim fell 2-1 to Costa Mesa Estancia.
“It’s real special. They deserve this moment,” Borenstein said. “We go on to regionals, but our ultimate goal was to win City.”
They did just that behind standout performances from Hannah Di Genova and Courtney Cohen, who clubbed fourth-inning homers that put ECR ahead to stay, and pitcher Brooke DeSmet, who struggled mightily in the first two innings before making the play that changed the game.
Kennedy had batted around in the second inning, taking a 6-1 lead, and when Kiara Martinez walked to open the third, she became the 11th of 17 hitters to reach base against DeSmet. But pitcher Maya Ramirez followed by lining a ball back up the middle that DeSmet gloved before throwing to first to double off Martinez.
DeSmet (22-5) gave up only two hits and two walks the rest of the way.
“At the beginning they were loud. I was trying to tell myself, ‘Oh, they’re cheering for me instead of their own batter,’” said DeSmet, who gave up six hits, four walks and hit a batter. “After that it kind of calmed down a little bit. That was a turning point.”
For Kennedy, it was pretty much the ending point of a remarkable season. The Cougars made it to the playoffs despite losing their on-campus softball field to construction, forcing the team to practice on the blacktop and play at a nearby park.
Gardena Serra junior Rodrick Pleasant broke the 37-year-old state record in the boys’ 100 meters at the Masters Meet on Saturday.
They also lost their two best pitchers to injury. Yet they made it the City final by upsetting Granada Hills and Carson after entering the postseason with the second-lowest seeding of the eight qualifiers.
For ECR, Di Genova and Cohen both finished with three hits, including their home runs, while Camryn Fritz had four RBIs, two of them coming on a towering homer in the fifth inning. Afterward Di Genova reflected on her high school career.
“I played with most of these people since I was 5 or 6,” she said. “So it’s crazy. And it’s sad seeing them go now. They mean a lot to me.”
Yet Fritz, whose homer came in her final City Section at-bat, said she was looking forward to graduation, even if it means never playing with these girls again.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “I mean, it’s life. You move on.”
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