With such a successful season finishing with a 13-1 record in league, Carlmont varsity girls softball heads towards a bright future in the Central Coast Section Championships.
The Lady Scots completed their first CCS game against Salinas on Saturday, coming out with a 6-2 win.
“If you play for Carlmont, you’re prepared,” said coach Jim Liggett.
The girls make it look easy as they run through each game with smiles on their faces and confidence in their potential.
“I think we are pretty well prepared physically. We just need to focus more and get our heads in the game, considering we had a fairly easy league season mentally,” said sophomore Mariko Kondo.
The Lady Scots only lost four games out of 42 overall including pre-season, ranking them 92nd in the nation as a high school varsity softball team.
“This year, we are really calm and we aren’t looking to put too much pressure on ourselves. We are also much better bonded as a team this year than we were last year,” said junior Missy Pekarek.
Last year, Carlmont had an equally impressive league record, but lost to their long-time rival San Benito, ending their CCS legacy for the year.
“We have already beat San Benito this year in a tournament, and they are a team we always lose to, so it boosted our confidence,” said Pekarek.
“We didn’t know we were playing San Benito and this time we beat them, neither one of us through our number one pitcher. Kondo did a very good job against them,” said Liggett.
After the heart-breaking loss in the 2011-2012 season and the exciting win this season, there were high stakes regarding whether the girls would continue their success streak into CCS. Lucky for them, they are highly regarded as one of the better teams in the Bay Area.
“It is tough because if you pick up one loss in CCS, you’re gone; you don’t get a second chance. We have a good group of girls that are capable of winning CCS, so we have to play good and error-free softball,” said Liggett.
As the Lady Scots look forward to their upcoming game, they make sure their priorities are straight and that they take one game at a time. Each player is hoping to come out with a win in order to continue on their path of CCS to lead them to the championships.
