The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.
College of San Mateo is headed to a 10th consecutive 3C2A state softball finals tournament May 16-19 at West Valley College in Saratoga.
The Lady Bulldogs (38-5) rolled past longtime rival Ohlone College, 8-1 and 8-0 (6 innings), in the Mother’s Day weekend Super Regional tournament at their home Tom Martinez softball complex.
And for the first time, the Northern California power Bulldogs will get to sleep in their own beds. For the first time, the state finals have a Nor Cal home as West Valley and San Jose City College will serve as co-host.
San Jose will only host a pair of loser-bracket games Friday during the four-day tournament.
San Mateo, with the NorCal No. 2 seed, will face SoCal No. 3 Palomar College (39-4) in Thursday’s 11 a.m. state opener at West Valley.
The CSM-Palomar winner gets the winner of So Cal No. 1 seed Fullerton (44-5) and Nor Cal No. 4 Sierra (20-24) in a second-round game Friday morning. The championship of the double-elimination tournament is scheduled for noon Sunday at West Valley College, with an “if necessary” game being played 3 p.m.
San Joaquin Delta (38-4) is the No. 1 seed of Northern California, with CSM, Cosumnes River (37-8) and Sierra rounding out the Nor Cal teams.
In addition to So Cal No. 1-seed Fullerton, the rest of the So Cal quartet are Cypress (37-7), Palomar and Mt. SAC (36-9).
CSM, ranked No. 2 in the state overall, made quick work of the rival Renegades in last weekend’s Super Regional. Ohlone was the team to beat as CSM ascended to Nor Cal and state rankings a decade ago, but the Bulldogs have owned the Renegades over the last several seasons.
“We had great pitching and defense over the two days,” said CSM coach Nicole Quigley-Borg after Saturday’s 10th straight NorCal Region finals triumph. “And we had an inside the park home run by Ariana Montiel.”
The rare inside smash to the right field corner highlighted a six-run sixth inning that ended the regional tourney on the eight-run, mercy-rule margin. Montiel’s blast also brought home Michelle Hara, who had singled, to give CSM a 6-0 lead. A bases loaded double by all-state Megan Barstad, subsequently, ended it — bringing home Emma Kinder and Ari Williams, who had singled and walked, respectively.
Montiel, a Mercy-Burlingame grad, went 4 for 6 with five RBIs in the Super Regional against Ohlone. The sophomore centerfielder from Daly City hit for the cycle in the series, with a triple and a single in the first game and an RBI double in addition to the homer in the finale.
Hara, a sophomore rightfielder out of South City, went 5 for 6 with two RBIs, scoring four runs.
All-state pitcher Kennedie Margorian went the distance on a 3-hitter to record her 16th win, fanning seven and walking just one.
Margorian lowered her ERA to 1.56, which is 15th-best in the state. CSM already has the state ERA leader in Nohemi Livingston (0.77) and No. 4 Siona Halwani (1.14). As a staff, the Bulldogs boast an ERA of 1.24.