GAMES
RANKINGS
St. Francis OF Jaime Oakland courtesy St. Francis High School
ROAD TO STATE: California High School softball down to Final Fours
The final softball competition in California continues Thursday after a highly competitive first-round action of the California Interscholastic Federation was completed Tuesday.
The best game of the day in the top Divisions was in Northern California Division 1, where Nebraska signee Jaime Oakland and top junior prospect Peyton Tsao, a Stanford commit, each scored on a single sacrifice fly by Maya Meltz to lift host fourth-seed St. Francis-Mountain View to a 4-3 Northern California quarterfinal win over North Coast Section champion San Ramon Valley-Danville.
The Lancers (26-4), who were upset in the Central Coast Section semifinals last week, now travel to nationally-ranked Destiny Christian-Sacramento (29-0) semifinal game.
All semifinal games throughout the Golden State are 4 p.m. on Thursday.
San Ramon Valley (23-7), a surprise road team considering it won its NCS D1 title game 17-1 over College Park-Pleasant Hill, took a 2-0 lead thanks to Natalie Sun, who drilled a solo home run and an RBI single in the first four innings.
St. Francis tied it 2-2 in the fourth on RBI singles from Itzel Hernandez and Cam Elliott, but the Wolves went back up by a run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Mads Sekera, scoring Kennedy Warren.
But in the bottom half, the Lancers loaded the bases with one out on two walks and an error before Meltz was retired on a great grab toward the line by Charlie Callison, who slightly lost her footing. Oakland scored easily and Tsao was sent home also. She just beat the throw.
Now the Lancers get a Destiny Christian team that has outscored opponents by a 365-29 count, including a 1-0 win over St. Francis on March 25 when Roxanne Sardo and Ayla Tuua combined on a two hitter with just three strikeouts. Mercedes Collier, who won Tuesday’s game to improve to 13-2, gave up just two hits to Destiny Christian and struck out seven.
Destiny Christian, which opened NorCal play with a 13-2 win over College Park, is ranked ninth nationally according to MaxPreps.com. The Lions are led by senior Ayla Tuua, an LSU signee, and Purdue-bound Roxanne Sardo who have combined for 29 home runs and 121 RBIs, 18 and 76 delivered by Tuua.
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NORCAL BRACKETS
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NORCAL FIRST-ROUND RESULTS
Division 1
Tuesday’s first round
No. 1 Destiny Christian 13, No. 8 College Park 2
No. 4 St. Francis 4, No. 5 San Ramon Valley 3
No. 6 Whitney 12, No. 3 Archbishop Mitty 4
No. 2 Clovis East 4, No. 7 Elk Grove 1
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Thursday’s semifinals
No. 4 St. Francis (26-4) at No. 1 Destiny Christian (29-0)
No. 6 Whitney (25-8) at No. 2 Clovis East (22-4)
Division 2
No. 1 Alameda, bye
No. 5 Hollister 9, No. 4 Vanden 3
No. 3 Willow Glen 4, No. 6 Central Catholic 1
No. 2 Del Oro 10, No. 7 Northgate 0
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Thursday’s semifinals
No. 5 Hollister (22-7) at No. 1 Alameda (23-5)
No. 3 Willow Glen (23-7) at No. 2 Del Oro (21-8)
Division 3
No. 1 Monterey, bye
No. 5 Chico 12, No. 4 Chowchilla 6
No. 6 East Nicolaus 3, No. 3 Rodriguez-Fairfield 2
No. 2 Las Plumas 9, No. 7 Foothill-Pleasanton 2
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Thursday’s semifinals
No. 5 Chico (25-7) at No. 1 Monterey (16-10)
No. 6 East Nicolaus (26-1) at No. 2 Las Plumas (29-1-1)
Division 4
No. 1 West Valley, bye
No. 5 Escalon 6, No. 4 Alhambra 5
No. 3 Live Oak 9, No. 6 Amador-Sutter Creek 8
No. 2 Alisal 12, No. 7 Newark Memorial 0
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Thursday’s semifinals
No. 5 Escalon (16-11) at No. 1 West Valley (28-2)
No. 3 Live Oak (15-8) at No. 2 Alisal (21-5)
Division 5
No. 1 Notre Dame-Belmont, bye
No. 4 Moreau Catholic 10, No. 5 Chester 0
No. 3 Durham 12, No. 6 Lowell 2
No. 2 Le Grand 10, No. 7 Justin-Siena 0
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Thursday’s semifinals
No. 4 Moreau Catholic (17-12) at No. 1 Notre Dame-Belmont (16-11-1)
No. 3 Durham (20-10) at No. 2 Le Grand (20-7)
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SOCAL RESULTS
Top Division 1 seed Mater Dei Catholic-San Diego received a first-round bye and will face fifth-seed Point Loma, a 10-1 winner over Whittier Christian. Ella Poulin and Remington Spangler each hit homers for Point Loma (24-9).
The other semifinal game will pit second-seed La Habra, which hosts sixth-seed St. Paul. Both teams won first-round games by forfeit due to opponents’ honoring travel ball commitments, according to multiple reports.
Alyssa Hernandez, a senior outfielder, leads La Habra (24-8) with 11 home runs and 37 RBIs, while St. Paul (20-13) is led by senior third baseman Mia Negrete (.453 average, seven home runs).
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BRACKETS
Florida-bound pitcher Lilianna Escobar, of JSerra Catholic.
PLAY BALL: The Who's Who of the CIF Southern Section softball championships
One of the nation’s best and certainly largest high school softball tournaments continues Friday with the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section championships.
Some 266 teams in eight 32-team brackets got underway Thursday and continue with more first-round play, including the rugged top Division I which includes Top 25 national squads: No. 8 Murrieta Mesa (25-1), No. 9 Norco (25-2) and No. 17 Fullerton (24-3).
Top seed (in the D1 tournament) Murrieta Mesa opened with a 10-0 win on Thursday and takes on La Habra (21-7), a 3-2 winner over Los Altos, on Saturday.
Norco hosts Marina (19-8) and Fullerton hosts Cypress (16-12) Friday at 3:15 in first-round play.
Other Top 25 teams in California, according to MaxPreps computer rankings, in the D1 tournament are No. 5 JSerra Catholic (20-8), No. 12 Orange Lutheran (19-8), No. 13 King (22-6), No. 15 Oaks Christian (25-3), No. 16 La Mirada (22-4), No. 17 Etiwanda (22-3), No. 20 Chino Hills (20-7), No. 23 Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks (21-3) and No. 24 Riverside Poly (21-7).
Defending champions Norco (D1), Los Alamitos (D2), Marina (D3), Long Beach Poly (D4), St. Bonaventure (D5), University (D6), Rancho Mirage (D7) and Hueneme (D8).
Among Southern Section playoff senior players who have already signed to Top 50 Division 1 college programs (according to On3 Rivals):
Arizona — Lilly Hauser (Murrieta Mesa, pitcher)
Arizona State — Sofia Hernandez (Whittier Christian, infielder), Alyssa Torres (Valley View, catcher)
California — Emoji Lam Sam (Long Beach Poly, infielder),
Florida — Liliana Escobar (JSerra Catholic, pitcher)
Kansas — Jocelyn Alatorre (El Modena, outfielder)
Kentucky — Cheri Thompson (King, infielder)
Michigan — Mia Valbuena (Marina, pitcher)
Nebraska — Brooke Lebsock (King, catcher)
Notre Dame — Morgan Fitzpatrick (Los Alamitos, infielder)
Oklahoma — Ki’ele Ho-Ching (Long Beach Poly, infielder), Malaya Majam-Finch (Fullerton, pitcher).
Oklahoma State — Peyton May (Norco, pitcher)
Ole Miss — Charli Calas (Linfield Christian, infielder), Madelyn Armendariz (Orange Lutheran, infielder)
Oregon — Kyle Tafua (El Modena, catcher)
Purdue — Taylor Day (Paraclete, outfielder), Kylie Rocha (Vista Murrieta, catcher)
Stanford — Kale’a Tindal (Harvard-Westlake, outfielder)
UCLA — Aubrey McLaughlin (Roosevelt, infielder), Ava Tapia (Upland, catcher)
See complete Southern Section brackets here:
Among from the other nine California sections to get play underway this week are the Central Section, LA City Section, Sac-Joaquin Section, and Northern Section.
About VYPE: Is a high school and youth sports media network based in Houston Texas, promoting and celebrating young athletes, the sports they play, the coaches who mentor them and the fans who cheer them on. The 18-year organization has provided vibrant, in-depth digital images and print stories primarily to the Texas and South region but is branching out, making waves and building relationships throughout the country, starting this month in the Golden State of California.
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About the author: Born in Hollywood, raised in Santa Barbara and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mitch Stephens has been a high school sports journalist in California since 1984, the year LeBron James was born. His newspaper days began at the Contra Costa Times and Bay Area News Group chains, expanded to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2001 — where he still spreads the prep sports gospel — with full time national writing, reporting and column gigs at MaxPreps (2007 to 2022) and SBLive/High Schools on SI (2022 to present). Among his most treasured feature subjects as preps were Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jeremy Lin,