It’s rare in high school sports when the top two teams in the country meet in competition.

Sometimes it happens on the basketball court in a national tournament or perhaps within a state playoff two football teams in a power state like California, Florida or Texas may square off.

In softball, the depth of talent in Southern California is so high that often there are so many good teams that they may knock each other off.

But after Saturday it’s pretty clear who the king of the softball hill is… at least for right now.

Mission Viejo (Calif.), ranked No. 1 in the latest Student Sports Softball FAB 50 rankings, faced off against No. 2 Pacifica (Garden Grove, Calif.) in the finals of the Best of the West Tournament held on Pacifica’s home field and for the second time in two weeks the top-ranked Diablos came out on top.

The surprise of the day—perhaps of the entire year, actually—was that star pitcher  and Arizona commit Taylor McQuillin, who recorded 11 strikeouts in Mission Viejo’s semi-final win over El Modena, didn’t take the circle for the winners.

Instead Diablos head coach Troy Ybarra went with talented freshman pitcher Kyra Snyder who rose to the occasion to allow only two earned runs on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

Pacifica has two standout pitchers in Kylee Carlson (North Carolina signee) and Kaley Winegarner (Stanford commit), who’s recovering from an ACL injury, and after Carlson pitched a shutout in the semi-final win over Canyon of Anaheim, Head Coach Mark Campbell went with Winegarner who showed she’s not yet 100 percent as she allowed five earned runs on eight hits while striking out four.

The Mission Viejo offense showed it’s as potent as the pitching attack as outfielder Alyssa Palomino continued her Player of the Year-type season by going 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI—this after hitting a mammoth two-run home run in the semi that was her eighth of the year.

One SoCal softball expert who watched the game put it best: “Mission Viejo is loaded 1 through 9—they have the strongest team I think in the country and should win CIF… they should win everything.”

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A great new site for fans of high school sports in Orange County (Southern Calif.) is OCSidelines.com.  With permission, here’s indepth article Carlos Arias did on the game:

Diablos are Undisputed Champs of OC, State and Nation

GARDEN GROVE — It’s official. Mission Viejo is the undisputed No. 1-ranked team in Orange County, the state and nation after beating Pacifica, 5-2, in the championship game of the Best of the West Tournament on Saturday at Pacifica High.

It’s Mission Viejo’s second victory over Pacifica, ranked No. 2 in the OC, No. 2 in the state by CalHiSports.com and No. 2 in the nation by Student Sports, in the past seven days. The Diablos beat the Mariners, 5-0, in the championship game of the Tournament of Champions on March 15 in Bullhead City, Ariz.

Alyssa Palomino hit her eight homer of the season, a two-run blast that landed on Pacifica’s baseball field, in

Mission Viejo’s 3-1 victory over El Modena in the semifinals on Saturday morning. Kaylee Carlson pitched a four-hitter with 11 strikeouts in Pacifica’s 9-0 win over Canyon in the other semifinal.

That set the stage for the rematch. Palomino came up huge again in the finals, going 2 for 4 with two doubles and three RBI. Palomino probably would have had home runs No. 9 and 10, but the wind knocked them down and turned them into deep doubles to left field.

To read the rest of the article, click here

 

 

SEMI-FINALS

Pacifica 9, Canyon (Anaheim) 0

Kaylee Carlson tossed the complete game shutout scattering four hits, no walks and struck out eleven to improve to 8-1 on the season.  Faith Canfield was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs to pace the Mariners’ offense.

Mission Viejo 3, El Modena 1

Taylor McQuillin gave up an early home run, but settled in to strikeout 11 and Alyssa Palomino hit a two-strike blast over the right field fence (into the baseball field, actually) as part of a three-run fourth inning.