The California CIF-Southern Section quarterfinals took place on Thursday and one of the teams that is looking to be playing its best ball is Canyon High of Anaheim.

Earlier this week, the SS-Division I school beat a strong Chino Hills team and this afternoon Head Coach Dan Hays’ team won 6-1 against a Los Alamitos team that has 17 players going to Div. I colleges.

The Comanches, however, have a pitcher/hitter in Univ. of Utah signee Hailey Hilburn that is doing well in the circle and at the plate.

Hilburn surrendered only two hits through the first five innings, allowing her team to put up an insurmountable lead that was never seriously threatened until Los Al scored in the seventh. For the game, the senior gave up six hits while striking out four.

The senior pitcher helped her own cause with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third that plated outfielder Brianna Betschel, who is headed to Ohio State.

In fact, it was a Buckeye vs. Buckeye matchup through the game as Betschel faced Griffin starting pitcher Katya Duvall and tagged Duvall with an RBI single in the fourth inning to push the lead to 3-0.

The game could have been blown open later that inning if not for a bizarre double play. With the bases loaded, outfielder Jillian Jenkin hit a flair over short that landed for an apparent single and should have plated at least one run, but the base runners held up to see if the ball would be caught and were forced out at third and second.

That didn’t seem to faze Hilburn, who mixed speeds effectively, hit her spots low and after the game said, “My slow screwball was working well for me.”

The Comances added another pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, but when the first two Los Alamitos runners reached in the top of the seventh, the fans became a bit uneasy remembering how, a few days earlier, Chino Hills came back from a 5-0 lead to trail 5-3 with the bases loaded in the seventh inning before Hilburn notched the win.

Jade Loe doubled home a run for Los Al and Coach Hay quickly went out to the mound to talk to Hilburn. It wasn’t a friendly, calming discussion both pitcher and coach would later explain.

“I went out to get her pissed off,” Hay admitted after the win. “I wanted to get her focus back after she cruised through the first six innings. I told her to take charge and dominate like she had up to that point.”

The pep talk worked as Hilburn closed the door with no further damage and extended the Comanches’ season to at least Tuesday when they’ll play Norco, which beat Pacifica of Garden Grove in 10 innings today.

Los Alamitos finished 25-7 and was ranked No. 9 in the state earlier this week according to the latest CalHiSports.com rating and was No. 36 in the latest Full Count Softball FAB 50.

Canyon was on the bubble of the state’s Top 20 after heading into the week 21-7, but will certainly make the state and national rankings now.

“I’ve always said it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” added Coach Hay. “We’ve taking charge of games and that’s good but we have two more games – the semi’s and the championship still to go – so we haven’t won anything yet.”

***

On the other side of the Div. I bracket, Los Osos beat El Modena 9-4 while West Ranch and Murrieta Valley play Friday.

The Semi’s are Tuesday and Canyon will play at Norco while Los Osos will play at the home of tomorrow’s winner.

***

In Division II, the No. 1 team in the nation, Mission Viejo, continued to roll as it beat Sunny Hills 8-0. The Diablos will play at South Hills next Tuesday and so far in the playoffs have scored 30 runs in three games while All-American pitcher Taylor McQuillin has only allowed two runs.

Yucaipa continues to look gooe also, beating Oaks Christian 4-1, while Westlake doubled Foothill 201 so Westlake will play at Yucaipa next Tuesday.

All the semi-final games will start at 3:15 pm PST.