Last week was a first for Taylor McQuillin and her Mission Viejo (Calif.) team: the top-rated team in the nation suffered its first loss of the season as Pacifica High (Garden Grove, Calif.) beat the Diablos on a ninth inning walk-off home run. 

So how does Taylor, the outstanding pitcher ranked as the No. 5 rated prospect in the 2015 class, rebound from a heart-breaking defeat?  Simple… she turns her attention to the Calif. playoffs which are now upon us!

In this week’s blog, the junior talks about how “In games like these, anything can happen and rankings mean nothing as you fight to win a spot in the championship game at the end of it all.”

The Southern California standout has committed to the Univ. of Arizona and during the summer and fall plays for one of the premier club teams in the nation, the OC Batbusters-Haning squad that will be one of the favors to win PGF this year.  Taylor is also a standout student with a 4.2 GPA at Mission Viejo (Calif.) High School where she earned 1^st team All-Orange County honors in 2013 and is a leading candidate for National Player of the Year in ’14.

Perhaps Taylor’s greatest accomplishment is she has done all this despite having to overcome birth defects making her completely blind in the left eye and with only partial hearing on the left side.

Be sure to check out Taylor’s previous blogs and those of our other standout bloggers!

 

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The time has come and play-off season has begun!

The brackets for high school are out and CIF (Calif. Interscholastic Federation) starts this week. As teams prepare for their first games, the intensity levels and the want to compete rise as the play-off games are one-and-done situations.

Each team knows that every game they play could potentially be their last if they do not come out to play to win. The best part about this time of the season is knowing that the level of competition is higher and every team comes out to play.

In games like these, anything can happen and rankings mean nothing as you fight to win a spot in the championship game at the end of it all.

During the playoffs, minor things could cause seasons to come to an end whether it may be one wrong pitch, one bad inning, or simply just a mistake. It keeps every athlete on her toes.

Some people may feel that it is better to play the type of playoffs that they do in other states, such as Texas, where the games are best 2-out-of-3. Personally, I enjoy the one-and-done because it makes every game that much more exciting; it gives you something to play for: the next game.

The fact that every game could be your last brings the fire out in the teams and shows that they want to play. It shows the teams that want to compete and the teams that peak when the time is right. No one is safe during this time of the year and everyone comes out ready to play.

Our high school team is ready to compete and ready to come out and fight.

We share a common goal with every other team in the playoffs in that we all want to be the last team standing. We are ready to fight and ready to compete.

After a tough first loss last Thursday, we are ready to bounce back and continue to show people the team that we are and the team that we are capable of being.

Our game last Thursday was a great learning experience for us and we all took it in and truly learned the things that we could improve on for when we play this week.

The biggest thing we learned from last week is to improve on the little things and the simple mistakes made and not worry so much about physical aspects because the game is mentally challenging and we need to rebuild confidence.

Playing a team that came out ready to compete against us last week really prepared us for how teams will come out ready to play in the playoffs. The games where the want to compete is so intense are the games I enjoy playing because it makes the game fun.

It shows that the purpose of the game is so much more than just a game. It shows that the hearts of the players are “all in” and at the end of the day, those are the games worth playing!

— Taylor McQuillin