Notre Dame softball’s season ends with disappointing loss to California in CIF-SS playoffs
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ENCINO — Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks softball was riding high in Justin Siegel’s first season as head coach, winning the Mission League title with only two seniors.
California High halted that momentum Wednesday afternoon, beating the Knights 7-3 in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs at Gladys C. Burns Field.
“From our perspective, our season was a success,” Siegel said. “And these girls fought really hard. They worked really hard all year. There’s only one team that wins at the end and unfortunately that’s not going to be us this year.”
Condors pitcher Pricilla Ramirez, a sophomore, threw a complete game and recorded 13 strikeouts while giving up nine hits.
The Knights’ Ella Parker went 3 for 3 with a home run and was intentionally walked once.
The win held special meaning for California coach Jay Ramirez, who was recently diagnosed with ALS. Ramirez was in tears at the center of the team’s postgame huddle, as his players surrounded him with a “Play 4 Jay” sign and blue ribbons tied around their wrists.
“This means everything,” he said.
Shirley Acevedo homered to drive in Isabella Salas and Ashley Hernandez in the first inning, giving the Condors a 3-0 advantage.
Parker hit an RBI double, scoring Nadia Ledon in the bottom of the frame, and Notre Dame (18-5) closed out the top of the second inning with a double play.
“It’s a long game, you play seven innings, 21 outs,” Siegel said. “And so our job is to work and have a plan at the plate, play solid defense and manufacture runs the way that we know how to manufacture runs.”
California (20-7-2) put up a run in the third inning on an RBI single from Ashley Hernandez.
The Knights had a scoring opportunity in the bottom of the third, but left three players on base.
Notre Dame scored a run in the fifth inning on a leadoff solo home run by Parker.
“We knew we were going to have to fight all the way through this entire game,” Parker, an Oklahoma commit, said. “The talk we had before was just like, we need to put all the energy into this game and we need to be good teammates and continue to stay alive throughout this entire game.”
Amaya Vasquez hit an RBI double in the sixth inning to extend California’s lead to 5-2 and the Condors tacked on two runs in the seventh inning.
Parker was intentionally walked in the bottom of the seventh and Raquel Lample scored her with a single.
Siegel said that he leaned on seniors Parker and McKenna Brough as he brought his travel softball experience into the Notre Dame program, which included 6 a.m. weight training three days a week.
“I’m incredibly proud of them and obviously we’re incredibility disappoints to have it end this way,” Siegel said. “But that’s the game and we’re gonna come back stronger and we’re gonna work harder and every cliche in the book.”