GRANADA HILLS — The Granada Hills Charter girls softball team made big defensive plays in clutch situations but couldn’t come up with the hits it needed as Etiwanda won, 1-0, in the CIF Southern California Regional Division II semifinals on Thursday afternoon.
Etiwanda pitcher Camryn Ortega allowed two hits over seven innings and struck out seven.
“They’ve built a really good team chemistry together,” Etiwanda coach Adrianna Brown said. “They’ve seen the potential that we have and the girls want to keep it going.”
CIF Southern Section Division 3 champion Etiwanda (30-5) will either travel to Chula Vista Mater Dei Catholic or host King in the regional championship game on Saturday.
Etiwanda softball is here to play Granada Hills Charter in the CIF SoCal Regional Division II semifinals nice and early at 11 a.m. pic.twitter.com/GfvU9zPnFm
— Haley Sawyer (@haleymsawyer) May 30, 2024
The game was held at 11 a.m. to accommodate Granada Hills’ graduation ceremony, which was happening later in the day. It was also finals week for non-seniors, causing academic chaos for some players.
Players were able to take finals for some classes early or late but others, like junior catcher Samantha Esparza, had to take a final in the morning and then play the semifinal game immediately after.
“I had a presentation, so I volunteered to go first,” she said. “I was like, ‘Can I get this over with?’ I did my presentation, went out and came straight (to the field).”
Esparza and the Highlanders (29-4) started to click early defensively when pitcher Addison Moorman fanned three in the first inning and Jasmine Soriano tagged a runner out at third base to keep Etiwanda off the board in the first two innings. Esparza was credited with the assist.
Moorman earned her 500th career strikeout and recorded nine strikeouts in the game overall. She gave up five hits.
Gisselle Peraza, the Eagles’ No. 9 hitter, belted a solo home run in the top of the third inning for the only run Etiwanda needed to win the game.
Moorman locked in to strike out the next hitter and the defense came up big once more to prevent an inside-the-park home run in the inning. Justine Zabala rocketed a long ball to the outfield but Granada Hills’ relay throws to the plate were in time for Esparza to tag out Zabala at home plate.
“I just knew right when it got over our left fielder’s head, I knew it was going to go all the way to the wall,” Esparza said. “And also because she’s a slapper, I know she has speed. So I was going all the way home on that play, trying to get in as quickly as possible and our relays did great.”
The Highlanders forced another out in the top of the fourth inning when they completed a series of throws from center fielder Jeniece Jimenez to second baseman Lainey Brown and finally to first baseman Gisselle Meridian.
Jimenez and Zoe Justman each had base hits for Granada Hills in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.
Granada Hills, which is losing five seniors to graduation, is using the high-intensity experience of Thursday’s game as well as the 14-inning loss to Carson in the CIF Los Angeles City Section Open Division final as tools for next season.
“I just hope that it happens, it clicks,” Granada Hills head coach Ivan Garcia said. “If it doesn’t happen today, it’s not a big deal. But it’s going to happen somewhere where you’re going to have pressure and you’re going to have to perform. Hopefully, they learn that from this experience.”
