The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.
Smashing three more home runs for a school-record season total of 83, the College of San Mateo softball team completed a super regional sweep of visiting Feather River, 8-4, on Saturday and will take a two-year, 12-game, postseason winning streak to Bakersfield to begin final defense of its California Community College Athletic Association state softball championship.
Love Cabanas
The Bulldogs meet Saddleback (32-13) in a 2 p.m. tournament opener at Bakersfield College Thursday.
The Bulldogs are 41-1, the top-ranked team in the state and the reigning state champions who have advanced to the state championship tournament for the 13th straight season.
Adding to their home run totals Sunday were all-state stars Love Cabanas (No. 9), Nia Mapa (No. 17), and Hannah Ames (No. 12) to help provide a 7-1 lead after six innings. Host CSM, playing in the visitor position, made it 8-1 in the top of the seventh as Rio Castillo doubled home Alyssa Green. Feather River scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to make the final score respectable.
All-stater Ale Phillips gave San Mateo a quick 1-0 lead in the top of first, scoring on an error, and the Bulldogs never looked back. Cabanas led off a three-run third inning with her blast, after which Ames doubled home Katie Johnson and advanced Selena Gonzales to third. Peyton Huber then singled in Gonzales to increase the lead to 4-0.
Johnson singled home Janelle Ramirez in the fourth to add to the lead.
Mapa and Ames hit solo shots in the sixth for the 7-1 advantage. All-state co-player of the year Mapa co-leads Northern California and is third in the state with her 17 round trips.
All-state pitcher Lola Sierra struck out four, while allowing three hits to extend her record to 26-1, the third-most wins in the state. Sierra’s 1.61 ERA ranked second, just behind pace-setting teammate Mapa (1.43), who has a perfect 9-0 pitching record, while also batting .464.
CSM also had three home runs in Friday’s first game of the series, a 15-0 mercy-rule win over Feather River. The Bulldogs are now averaging two home runs per game throughout their 41 wins this season.
