Crowning Achievement: Spartans Top Cougars for CIF Title

For four years, the La Canada softball team could count on two things whenever they stepped out onto the diamond: Anna Edwards’s bat, and Lauren O’Leary’s powerful right-arm.

The Spartans rode that duo to an unprecedented run of success since 2008, going from Rio Hondo League laughing stock to divisional contender to a team just one win away from its first CIF-Southern Section championship since 1995.

And with a title on the line against Beaumont, Edwards and O’Leary put the Spartans on their shoulders one final time. Edwards hit a solo home run in the top of the third inning for the game’s lone run, and O’Leary struck out eight in pitching a three-hit shutout to lead top-seeded La Canada to a 1-0 victory over the No. 2 Cougars and the CIF-SS Division 5 title Friday night at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine.

“Pretty fitting, pretty darn fitting, with a ball from Anna and a masterpiece from Lauren,” Spartans coach KC Mathews said. “It was awesome. Having girls playing at the next level definitely helped.”

While the game eventually morphed into a pitcher’s duel between O’Leary and Beaumont junior Alyssa Fuimaono, the Spartans nearly drained the game of any potential drama in the top of the first. La Canada loaded the bases with one out thanks to two walks and a double from junior catcher Catherine Horner.

But Fuimaono, who struck out nine in seven innings, K’d out Aubri Thompson and Lauren Cox to escape the inning with a zero still on the scoreboard. The Spartans (26-3) were left wondering how they were able to waste such a golden opportunity to take command of the game.

“We were just like, ‘How can’t we score?’ ” Edwards said. “This is going to happen. We’re getting runners on. She’s not unstoppable. People are getting on. We were just like, ‘Let’s keep going because they’re beatable. We’re the best team. We’re seeded No. 1. Let’s get after it.’ ”

Edwards got her chance to back up those claims when she walked up to the plate in the top of the third. Fuiamono quickly got ahead of Edwards 0-2, but her she hung her next pitch up in the zone. Edwards pounced on the mistake, crushing an opposite-field home run over the right-center field fence for a one-run lead.

“I knew I hit it straight on it, but I didn’t think it was out,” Edwards said. “I thought it was a double or like a single straight to right center. Then it went out, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is happening.’ ”

O’Leary took care of the rest from there. She worked her way out of jams in the first two innings, but as soon as O'Leary was staked to a lead a flip switched. O’Leary retired the next 13 batters following Edward’s blast until Beaumont’s Kristen Neal singled with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

“Anna did her part so it was time for me to do my part,” said O’Leary, who recorded her 15^th shutout of the season.

O’Leary said the key to slowing down a Beaumont squad that hadn’t been shutout all year until Friday was her ability to mix pitches to keep the Cougars (25-5) off balance.

“Pretty much all her pitches were working for her,” Horner said. “She always has a really strong screw ball. She never missed once.”

Said Mathews: “That glove started popping a little bit, no? She goes to work each and every inning. She's determined to do her job, and she's done it for four years.”

Beaumont mounted a late charge in the bottom of the seventh. Neal’s single put the tying run on first base with one out. The pro-Cougar contingent began to sway and rock, sensing a possible chink in O’Leary’s seemingly impenetrable armor.

Beaumont junior catcher Bernadette Moreno came to the plate representing the game-winning run. O’Leary threw two strikes to begin the at-bat, the Cougars called a timeout as the crowd worked itself into a frenzy.

Amidst the chaos, O’Leary huddled with her catcher. But she didn’t talk strategy or about what pitch she would throw next, instead she became musical during the game’s most tense moment.

“I knew it was a pressure situation so I was just trying to make (Horner) laugh trying to relax everyone,” said O’Leary, who will attend Georgetown University next year. “We have a lot of inside jokes so I just started singing a song to her.”

O’Leary then coolly recorded back-to-back strikeouts to end the game. And after the final pitch zoomed past Beaumont pinch-hitter Krista Valdivia for strike three, Horner threw off her catcher's mask in delight and sprinted to her star pitcher as the Spartans began a massive celebration to culimante a championship four years in the making.

“I can’t even describe it,” Edwards said. “We’ve been working not even just this season, not just like this postseason, our whole high school careers to do this. And for it to happen and to happen like this, I can’t even put it into words. The best way to end my high school career, I don’t even know what to say.”