The La Cañada Baseball Softball Association’s 14-and-under girls’ softball team continued its remarkable summer tournament run this past weekend at the Southern California B State Championship in Lancaster.
La Cañada opened the tournament Friday with a huge 17-2 win over Murrieta Valley. Caitlin Yee and Riley Labrecque each had two hits with four and two RBIs, respectively, and Sienna Matthews added three hits with two RBIs. Pitcher Natalie Stogel struck out five while only allowing one hit.
Against Fountain Valley in their second game last Friday, La Cañada trailed 6-0 but clawed back by scoring one run in the bottom of the first inning when Stogel drove in Matthews with a line drive to center field. La Cañada added on three more in the bottom of the second inning behind the bats of Laila Kazazian, Sapna Pradhan, Jayne Bender and Alexandra Kim. After holding their opponent scoreless in the second and third innings, La Cañada scored six more runs and held on to win, 10-9.
La Cañada’s third game was a solid 10-3 win over Huntington Beach. Hannah Clark, Kim, Pradhan and Victoria Kelly each had two hits in the victory. That third win put La Cañada in the top eight teams at B States and qualified them for the Western Nationals Tournament. But La Cañada had its sights set higher.
La Cañada’s only game on Saturday was against Temecula. Stogel stood in the circle again for La Cañada, striking out five with one walk over the five-inning game, allowing only three runs. Siena Gundersen, Matthews, Kelly, Kazazian, Bender, Kim and Pradhan all came through with hits en route to a 5-3 win for La Cañada, which advanced to Sunday’s semifinals.
La Cañada was matched up against East County and Kazazian belted a second-inning double into deep center field. Kim singled into left field, driving in Kazazian for a 1-0 lead. Caitlin Yee was in the circle for La Cañada and ran into a little trouble in the third inning, walking the first two batters and then surrendering a home run. However, that was the only hit East County would get in the game. The La Cañada offense scored six runs with hits from Matthews, Kelly, Labrecque, Kazazian, Pradhan and Kim. La Cañada tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning, finishing with a 9-3 win.
The victory moved La Cañada into the championship game against Walnut. This was Walnut’s first trip to a state tournament and La Cañada pounded 17 hits en route to the win and the title. Hannah Clark had a huge day at the plate with a double and a triple. Allizon Sullivan, Charlotte Willes and Camryn Cha each had a hit and Alexa Talbert and Sienna Dunbar each scored runs in the winning effort. Stogel struck out two and allowed only three hits.
La Cañada finished first among 25 teams in the Southern California B States Tournament and will advance to the Western B National Tournament, which begins on July 24 in Roseville.
First published in the July 13 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
