Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
St. Francis' Lauren Wong, center, is unable to tag out a Los Gatos base runner at second base.
Special to the Town Crier
High School Softball Scoop
The St. Francis and Mountain View High Softball teams both begin quests for Central Coast Section titles this week.
And both local teams will need to remain focused if they wish to go far in their respective tournaments.
After sewing up the SCVAL De Anza Division crown and riding a three-year, 38-game league win streak, the Lancers (23-7) last week tripped up against Los Gatos, 2-1, and Milpitas, 4-3, to end the regular season.
Now the Lancers must put the past behind them and go forward.
St. Francis, seeded second, opens CCS Division II play at noon, Saturday in quarterfinal action against either St. Ignatius (18-8) or Del Mar (20-8) at PAL Stadium in San Jose.
Mountain View (13-10), which finished in a second-place tie with Milpitas in the tough De Anza Division, earned the No. 7 seed in the CCS Division III tournament and takes on No. 10 Carmel (13-13 ) at 5 p.m., Thursday at PAL stadium.
If the Spartans triumph, they will play No. 2 Capuchino (16-7) at 2 p.m., Saturday at Hawes Park in Redwood City.
Mountain View ended the regular season with a 4-3 setback to visiting Cupertino last Friday despite two hits and three RBI from senior shortstop Cyra Callahan.
Earlier last week, the Spartans nipped visiting Wilcox 2-1, as freshman Katrina Hafalia hit the first homer out of new Spartan Field.
Los Altos finished its De Anza Division season at 5-7 after losing 5-0 last Friday to host Milpitas. The Eagles went 7-15 overall.
Moving to the SCVAL El Camino Division, Homestead (7-7, 10-13) last week beat Palo Alto 2-1 behind the pitching of senior Natalie Corral and a homer from junior Shawnti Bartoli and then lost its season finale 8-2 to last-place Gunn.
Gunn's Tiffany Wang blasted a first-inning grand slam to lead the Titans (2-12, 4-14). Rebecca Ting later added a homer of her own, her third in three games.
In the Private Schools Athletic League, Pinewood dropped its final three games last week to finish 4-10.
The Panthers (5-16 overall) opened the week with a 9-5 loss to visiting Notre Dame-San Jose, blowing an early 5-1 lead, then lost 11-9 at home to Valley Christian-Dublin and 7-0 at Mercy-Burlingame.
Freshman Jessica Bussey was the losing pitcher in all three games, dropping her record to 3-15.
Isabella Escudero had four hits for the week and Lara Barhoum had three, including a triple.