First published in the July 7 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
The La Cañada Baseball and Softball Association’s 12-and-under Spartan softball team continued its stellar summer tournament run by placing third in the Southern California C State Championship in Lancaster last weekend.
The girls opened the competition Friday with an 8-4 victory over San Juan Capistrano behind the offensive performance from Jayne Bender, who powered LC going 3-for-3 with four RBIs. Ace pitcher Natalie Stogel was dominant and recorded six strikeouts over four innings.
La Cañada continued its winning ways the following day and defeated Los Altos, 8-5, with Siena Matthews, Hannah Clark, Chloe Dugan and Riley Labrecque each collecting two hits.
The victory placed LC among the top 12 teams in the state tournament, but the girls had loftier expectations. La Cañada took on the top team from North Shore Saturday afternoon and came away with a 3-2 win. Stogel struck out six in five frames to help her team qualify for the Western B National Tournament.
LC was back on the field in the evening and squared off against Aliso Viejo. The Spartans’ bats remained hot in an 8-1 victory, led by Alexandra Kim, Leela DiTullio, Matthews, Stogel, Bender, Clark and Labrecque. Bender tossed a complete game and surrendered only on run on three hits, lifting LC to the semifinals.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, their engine finally ran out of gas Sunday in the semifinals and fell to Palos Verdes, which went on to win the tournament.
La Cañada finished third out of 37 teams and is one of two LCBSA softball teams — the other being the 14-and-under squad — to qualify for the Western B National Tournament that begins July 24 in Corona. It has been 15 years since LCBSA had two softball teams competing in the national tournament.
