Steele Canyon’s softball team tops Cerritos Valley Christian in first round of SoCal Regionals

After a long and sometimes grueling CIF San Diego Section softball season, folks often refer to the SoCal Regionals as bonus ball.

Tell that to the tight right calf muscle and blistered right hand of Marina Gonzalez, a sophomore ace at Steele Canyon High School.

Facing one of the toughest lineups in the state, Gonzalez scattered five hits and struck out seven to lead the No. 2-seeded Cougars to a 3-1 win over No. 7 Cerritos Valley Christian on Tuesday in a Division 3 SoCal first-round game in Spring Valley.

“That’s a great lineup,” Steele Canyon coach Kevin Pearlstein said. “Marina’s been lights out the whole postseason.

“Her calf is sore. She has a couple blisters, but she wants the ball. We’ll go as far as she goes.”

Steele Canyon (23-8-1) will play host to No. 3 Imperial (28-3-1) on Thursday in the semifinals. The Tigers shut out JW North, 7-0, on Tuesday after winning the section Division 3 title, 11-2, over Eastlake.

“Let’s play as a team and see how far we can go,” Cougars sophomore catcher Makenzie Meyer said. “If we keep playing the way we’re playing, we have a high chance of winning state.”

Valley Christian (18-7) came into the game with a Southern Section Division 5 championship and a .393 team batting average, scoring 9.2 runs per game. Sophomore catcher Peyton Kingery was hitting .684 with four HRs, 31 RBI and 34 runs. In the Defenders’ 21-13 section semifinal win over St. Bonaventure, Kingery had five hits, three HRS and nine RBI. Junior shortstop Brit Brown (.452-2-32) had six hits.

Valley Christian’s Choyce Chambers (.359) led off the game with a double but was stranded by Gonzalez with a groundout and two strikeouts.

VC’s Tallulah Ireland (.426) led off the second with a triple but was stranded by Gonzalez with two popups and a strikeout.

Kingery doubled with two out in the third but was stranded by Gonzalez with a fly to left.

In the fourth, Ireland doubled and scored on a single by Briannna Ramirez to tie the game 1-1. Gonzalez (12-5, 2.56 ERA) then retired 11 of the final 13 batters she faced with only a hit batter and an error allowing runners. Kingery was on-deck when Gonzalez induced a fly to center for the final out.

“Their stats didn’t really bother us,” Gonzalez said. “We didn’t think about their averages, just about the spot and spin I needed to get them out.”

Steele Canyon scored its first two runs on errors by the Defenders’ second baseman.

In the second, Hailey Trujillo reached on an error but was erased on a grounder by Kayala Hopkins. Dannika Lakin then collected the first of her three singles, and Meyer was hit by a pitch to load the bases with three sophomores. Another soph, Tevia Cohen hit a soft popup to second for an infield-fly rule automatic out. But the Defenders’ defender tried to double up pinch-runner Riley Diffenbaugh at first base and overthrew it allowing Hopkins to score.

In the fifth, Lakin dropped a ball into short right field, Cohen lined a single to right, and they both moved up on a fielding error. Isabella Azevedo then popped up behind first and a fielding error allowed Lakin to score. A sacrifice flyout to center by Kamea Seunarine scored Cohen.

“Take those errors away, we win 1-0,” VC coach Chester Kingery said. “But they’re good. They play fundamentally sound ball, and they’ve got a great pitcher.”

In his eighth season at Steele, Pearlstein admitted that Steele Canyon played a bit flat after the Cougars’ 4-3 loss to Otay Ranch in the San Diego Section Division 1 championship game.

“Sophomores everywhere, we’re a very, very young team,” Pearlstein said. “We were flat after that gut-wrenching loss in the CIF Final. But the girls picked themselves up. They fought to play another day.”