Dos Pueblos last played in a CIF softball title game in 2005.
The Chargers are one step away from getting back to the final. To get there, they have to take a long road trip and go through one of the highest-scoring teams in the Southern Section, San Bernardino-Aquinas, in the CIF Division 4 semifinals Tuesday.
Aquinas has scored a whopping 288 runs this season, is 26-1 and the top-seeded team in the division. The Falcons have scored 34 runs in their three playoff wins, including 20 in a first-round game.
Aquinas is led by junior shortstop Danielle Vega, who is batting a staggering .682 with 60 hits and 68 RBIs. Chelsea Casas is next at .544 with 46 hits and 42 RBIs.
The numbers are impressive, but Aquinas probably hasn’t faced a quality pitcher like DP’s Fresno State-bound Hannah Harris or a defense as solid as the Chargers’.
Harris has thrown five straight shutouts, and DP (20-6) has allowed only 61 runs this season. In her last outing at Ocean View, she took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. The Chargers won in 11, 1-0.
“She was tough. She was the best pitcher that we have seen this year,” Ocean View coach Mike McLaughlan told OC Varsity after the game.
Harris has a knack of coming up with the big pitches in tough situations. Against Ocean View, with runners on second and third in the bottom of the 10th, she got the next batter to ground out to end the inning.
DP would score the game-winning run in the next inning, and Harris had a hand in it. She advanced Chloe Madill with an infield single, and Jordan Roberts followed with a high fly to center that was misplayed, allowing Madill to score.
Roberts is DP’s clutch hitter. She’s driven in a team-high 20 runs and is batting .305. Harris leads the team in batting with a .340 average.
DP won a CIF title in 2005 and reached the semifinals in 2006.
