No. 1 seed St. Francis had no difficulty in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Open Division softball playoffs Saturday, routing No. 8 Cupertino 18-0.
Sydney Stewart and Carly Cummings homered for St. Francis , the top-ranked team in the Bay Area News Group’s Top 20, bringing the team’s season total to 49 round-trippers in 28 games along with a .454 team batting average. Stewart’s home run was her 12th of the season.“It was her first-ever over the fence, which was kind of cool,” St. Francis coach Mike Oakland said.Cupertino had a fine season.
All four Open Division semifinalists qualify for the inaugural Northern California regional playoffs that start May 31.Rae D’Amato and Brooke Tran combined on the shutout for Aragon . D’Amato went the first three innings, Tran the final four.D’Amato had three hits and drove in two runs, Brooklyn Blake two hits and two RBIs. Tran and DiNardo also had two hits apiece.
Aragon coach Liz Roscoe cited defensive plays by Blake at second base and left fielder Janelle Jee as keys in maintaining the shutout.The Monarchs got home runs from Taryn Kern, Elon Butler and Lindsey Miller to put the game away early with an 11-run third inning. Kern’s homer was her 12th of the season. Jessica Werthman went five innings for the win and improved to 8-1.
Mitty will play No. 2 seed Notre Dame-Salinas, a 4-3 winner over Santa Teresa, in the Open Division semifinals, Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the Salinas Sports Complex.Elizabeth Do, Lola Sierra and Madison Choi had two hits apiece and Nohemi Livingston pitched a complete game for Capuchino , which will play Hillsdale in the semifinals on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at PAL Stadium. Hillsdale went 2-0 against Capuchino in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play.