The Steele Canyon Lady Cougars captured the 2006 San Diego Section Division III softball championship, finishing 23-9. The softball title stood out as the first CIF championship for girls sports team in school history.
Samantha Beasley hurled a four-hit shutout while striking out seven batters to push the Lady Cougars to their history making win.
The ladies of Steele have had quite a bit of success since then. Beasley won San Diego Section Pitcher of the Year honors in 2006 and Player of the Year honors in 2007 as Steele Canyon won back-to-back Division III championships.
Moving up to the Division II ranks, the Lady Cougars posted second place finishes in both the 2009 and 2017 CIF finals.
That brings us to this season’s runner-up finish in the Division I finals, a 4-3 loss to Otay Ranch on May 24 at UC San Diego. The game ended with a runner in scoring position and a lot of proverbial what-ifs.
Otay Ranch (20-12) would go on to defeat Division II San Diego champion Imperial on June 1 to claim this year’s Division III Southern California title. Steele Canyon’s one-run loss to the Lady Mustangs was every bit as close as the score might suggest, placing the Lady Cougars a play here or there from attaining section and state royalty.
“We had an outstanding season of dramatic walk-off wins and in the CIF championship a heartbreaking defeat,” Steele Canyon coach Kevin Pearlstein said. “We are very young, starting two juniors, five sophomores and a freshman. A 23-9 record was great, including beating Carlsbad twice, Rancho Buena Vista and No. 1 seed Granite Hills three times, including back-to-back in CIF. This year’s amazing run has set us up for the future and we look forward to competing for a CIF championship.”
Top individuals on this year’s highly successful team included freshman pitcher Bailey Evans, sophomore pitcher Marina Gonzalez and junior captain Hailey Trujillo.
Gonzalez, the team’s ace in the pitching circle, finished the season 12-6 overall with a 2.50 earned-run average but was lights out down the stretch in league and in CIF, according to the Steele Canyon coach. A First Team All-Grossmont Hills League selection, Gonzalez also hit .369 on the season with five home runs.
Another first-team all-league pick, Trujillo had an outstanding year at the plate and at third base by hitting 0.421 on the season.
A second-team all-league selection, Evans went 11-3 on the season and hit over .310 with four home runs.
Granite Hills won this year’s Grossmont Hills League title with a 9-1 record, followed closely behind by Steele Canyon with an 8-2 league record.
Granite Hills received the No. 1 seed in the Division I playoffs while Steele Canyon was seeded No. 4. On the other side of the bracket, Bonita Vista received the No. 2 seed while Otay Ranch received the No. 3 seed.
Neither Granite Hills nor Bonita Vista would make it as far as the division championship game as upsets rained down on teams. Bonita Vista was unceremoniously dumped by No. 7 Patrick Henry (7-4) and No. 6 Mission Hills (5-2) in consecutive outings while Steele Canyon took care of Granite Hills with consecutive double-elimination victories.
But the Grossmont Hills League runners-up also had to navigate their share of obstacles. Steele Canyon lost, 8-7, in nine innings to fifth-seeded Carlsbad in its opening playoff game that dropped the Rancho San Diego team to the elimination bracket. The Lady Cougars rebounded with a 3-0 win over eighth-seeded Rancho Buena Vista to remain in contention, however, in the double-elimination format.
Trujillo, sophomore Kayala Hopkins and senior Makea Suenarine each drove in runs while Gonzalez and Evans handled the pitching duties.