Brooke DeSmet, Cynthia Carrillo lead El Camino Real past Granada Hills Charter in City Section finals rematch
GRANADA HILLS– El Camino Real (17-5) has looked the part of a reigning L.A. City Section Open Division softball champion all season. And on Tuesday, Elco passed one of its biggest tests yet of 2022.
Cal Lutheran commit Brooke DeSmet threw a complete game two-hitter as the Royals won 4-1 against West Valley League foe Granada Hills Charter – the second-ranked team in the section and the team they defeated last year in the finals.
ECR got all the runs it would need in the second inning. Zoe Alderson led off with a single and made it to third on an Amber Rivas double. GHC nearly made it out of the inning unscathed, but Cynthia Carrillo drove them both in with two outs with a base hit.
Carrillo instigated the Royals' other rally on the night as well, again with two outs, hitting a triple in the fourth inning with the bases empty. Hannah Di Genova drove her in with a double, and Camryn Fritz kept it going with a single that drove Di Genova in, although Fritz was nabbed trying to stretch it into a double.
Elco didn't allow a hit or a run until the bottom of the fourth inning, at which point it already led 4-0. Frankie Luster led off with a double for the Highlanders, and Chandler Martin drove her in with a triple.
But that was all the offense Granada would conjure in the entire game. DeSmet got the next batter out without letting the runner score, and then second baseman Maya Pirkl fielded a grounder and fired a strike to home plate to nail Martin attempting to score. With the exception of a couple walks in other innings that amounted to nothing, DeSmet was otherwise perfect for seven innings – as was the Royals' defense, for which Pirkl's highlight was a perfect thumbnail. Not only perfect in avoiding errors, but in turning numerous well-hit balls into outs.
For DeSmet, who now totes a 3.03 ERA in 120 innings of work despite pitching against the toughest schedule in the section, it was just more of the same. Playing alongside the Royals' athletic, energetic defense has been a hand-in-glove fit for a pitcher who excels at pitching to contact.
Without uncommon velocity or a ridiculous array of off-speed weapons, DeSmet doesn't rack up a ton of strikeouts. But she has a gift for varying location from pitch to pitch without leaving the strike zone, and still throws hard enough to challenge dangerous hitters with fastballs while sporadically altering speeds too. That makes a great recipe for forcing soft contact, which in turn keeps pitch count down. To pitch at the level she does with tremendous durability and consistency makes her a premier candidate for City Section Pitcher of the Year.
"We tell her, 'let your defense work, trust your defense.'" said head coach Jodi Borenstein.
"She's not a strikeout pitcher – it's just not her makeup – so she's just got to throw strikes and let them hit it. And as you saw, we played perfect on defense. Brooke pitched very little last season, but she knew coming in this year that [she'd be the starting pitcher], and she's stepped up to the challenge.
"Brooke is a gamer," Borenstein said. "She's never hurt, nothing ever hurts. She's always ready... she's a gamer."
Some City Section fans and followers have postulated that the title race is less open than usual this season, thanks partially to reigning ECR Royals looming at the top. Borenstein, however, is not one of them. She pointed out that there is a lot of time left for the section's other contenders to reach peak form, and also said it's a tall order for a defense to play every game as well as ECR's did on Tuesday.
"There definitely was [a playoff atmosphere] today, but at the same time, you have to approach it like it's just another game. There's so much season left, and we play them again.
"We happened to have a good defensive game today, but anything could happen if we have a bad defensive day. There are a lot of good teams that can surprise you at any given time, you just have to stay ready."
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