The Steele Canyon High School softball team went on a six-game winning streak to capture the championship title of this year’s42nd annual Hilltop tournament March 11-21.
The Lady Cougars (8-9) started the streak with a 7-4 win over Clairemont (7-9) on March 12 and swept both games on March 14 — 10-1 against Oceanside (8-6) and 8-2 over Canyon Hills (3-8-1). Steele Canyon defeated Southwest El Centro (9-8-1) by a score of 9-1 on March 14 to improve to 4-0 in tourney play.
The Lady Cougars weren’t finished in the 24-team tournament after notching a 4-3 win over Westview (8-4-1) in the semifinals on March 21 and tacking on a 10-0 win over Sage Creek (8-8) in the championship game.
“It was a good run through Hilltop for sure,” Steele Canyon head coach Kevin Pearlstein said. “Our team goals begin tomorrow (Tuesday) with our first league game at Granite Hills. We are a Division I program, so we are guaranteed at least one game in the CIF playoffs.
“Our goals the rest of the season are to improve our overall ranking, winning the Grossmont Hills League and making a championship run in CIF. We have nine seniors this season who contribute as well as nine underclassmen. Our top players are senior Ily Barclay, who is signed to play at Fairfield University in Connecticut as a student athlete, junior Payton Sos, who is committed to play at UC Santa Barbara, sophomore Sophia Jackel and freshman Izabella Thomas.”
Through 14 games, Barclay led the team with a torrid 0.465 hitting average while Jackel followed at 0.391 with 12 RBI, four doubles and two home runs, freshman Ariana Angotti at 0.362 with 10 RBI and Sos at 0.340 with nine RBI.
Xxx Will (0.327) had logged three home runs and 11 RBI while senior Dannika Lakin (0.300) had contributed nine RBI.
Xxx Shamaya led the team with 15 appearances in the pitching circle with a 2.26 ERA while Will had posted a 4.24 ERA in 12 appearances.
Seniors Makenzie Meyer and Will each drove in two runs with home runs in opening win over Clairemont while Thomas tacked on one double and RBI. Will and junior Delaney Shamaya shared pitching duties.
Thomas (double), Jackel and Angotti (triple) each collected two RBI in the win over Oceanside. Jackel scored three runs in the game while Barclay each scored twice in support of Will (eight strikeouts) and Sos in the pitching circle.
The team continued pool play as Will and Angotti each drove in two runs in the win over Canyon Hills. Junior Kallan Shaw, Will and Jackel each scored two runs. Shamaya pitched six innings with seven strikeouts.
Mayer and Sos each logged two RBI in the win over Southwest El Centro while Sos scored twice. Sos and Angotti each had three hits while Barclay (triple) had two hits. Shamaya and Will combined to strikeout out 12 batters (seven for Will and five for Shamaya) in shutting down the Lady Eagles.
The semifinal game against Westview was much closer. Will (double) had two RBI while Sos and Jackel each had one RBI. Barclay, senior Tevia Cohen, Shaw and Jackel each scored one run.
Shamaya, Will and freshman Avigail Hendricks combined to scatter seven hits in the pitching circle.
The championship game against Sage Creek was not close as the Lady Cougars racked up 18 hits, including two doubles and two home runs. Senior Marina Gonzalez led the East County team with three RBI while Lakin and Angotti each drove in two runs. Cohen, Barclay and Jackel each had one RBI.
Sos had three hits while Gonzalez, Lakin, Angotti, Barclay, Jackel and Will each had two hits. Angotti, Jackel and Thomas each scored two runs. Shamaya and Hendricks were reunited in the pitching circle, allowing two hits with three strikeouts in the run-rule contest.
Steele Canyon entered the week 14th our of 20 teams in the section’s Division I rankings. The top eight teams advance to the Open Division after the postseason cut.
AROUND EAST COUNTY
A total of four Grossmont Conference teams participated in this year’s Hilltop tournament with El Capitan, Helix and Santana joining Steele Canyon in the fray.
“The tournament was great — 24 teams from all over the county participated,” said Hilltop head coach and tournament director Juan Reyes.
El Capitan (8-6) finished 3-1 in tourney play with victories over Ramona (6-0 on March 11), Hilltop (15-0 on March 14) and Helix (7-3 on March 14) and a loss to Eastlake (2-0 in eight innings on March 12).
Sophomore Addison Higuera drove in two runs in the win over Ramona while senior Ciara Bernardini, junior Sofia Simone and sophomore Isabella Farris each collected one RBI. Higuera tossed a completed game one-hitter with six strikeouts.
Higuera came through with three hits, including two triples and four RBI in the win over 0.390) Hilltop (4-10-1) while Farris also slammed two triples and drove in three runs. Seniors Quinnley Morehouse (double, triple) and Gwen Hill (double) also knocked in three runs apiece in the run-rule victory.
Freshman Mckenzie Passanisi struck out four batters and allowed one hit in four innings to earn the win in the pitching circle.
Bernardini (triple) drove in three runs while sophomore Brynlie Ford, Higuera and freshman Cassidy Sterling each had one RBI to hand Helix (14- 1) its first loss of the season. Higuera scattered five hits with three strikeouts in six innings.
Senior Makenna Burton allowed three hits and struck out five batters in the loss to Eastlake.
On the season, Higuera topped the Lady Vaqueros with a 0.475 hitting average with eight RBI, two triples and two home runs, followed by Hill (0.462), Bernardini (0.390), sophomore G Garcia (0.389) and Sterling (0.343). Farris paced El Capitan with 10 RBI in 14 games.
Burton (1.54), Passanisi (1.95) and Higuera (2.07) were the team ERA leaders. Passanisi topped the group with 33 strikeouts in 28.2 inning while Burton had 22 strikeouts in 38.1 innings and Higuera had 16 strikeouts in 27 innings.
Helix and Santana (7-9) also finished 3-1 in tourney play.
Helix, led by sophomores Ella Aguyao (three RBI) and Lea Moya (two-hitter), clobbered Ramona by a 17-0 score on March 18 while Santana, braced by three RBI each from senior Bryleigh Britza and sophomore Alyssa Cipro, routed Canyon Hills (3-8-1) by a 15-0 score in another run-rule game on March 19 as junior Alexis Buquet struck out seven batters.
