Pacifica (Garden Grove) softball finds its highest gear on offense to beat Norco for D1 championship

Heading into the Southern Section Division 1 softball finals, Pacifica (Garden Grove) had scored 15 runs in a game once all season. 

The Mariners entered 22-8 overall, and 15-1 in games in which they scored more than three runs. However, when your opponent is top-seeded Norco, not even 15 runs is enough to guarantee a victory.

Heading into the bottom of the seventh up 15-7 with ace Brynne Nally still on solid footing, the Mariners had enough cushioning to potentially endure a rally from one of the nation's deepest lineups and still have air to breathe in securing their final three outs.

Mya Perez started off the inning by crushing a 1-2 pitch over the centerfield wall for the game's only home run, and Alyssa Hovermale followed it up with a hard base knock to right field. Had the game been closer, the pressure would've been off the charts for Pacifica.

But Norco would scratch just more run across the board in the game's final frame, and Nally went all the way in a 15-9 victory that signifies Pacifica officially reaching the promised land – the very top of SoCal high school softball, as denoted by a CIFSS D1 championship. 

While the final score indicates a lopsided barn burner, the game as a whole was much more tense.

Norco starting pitcher Marley Goluskin, an Idaho State commit, struggled out of the gate, but later settled in at a high level. In the game's opening frame, she had trouble throwing strikes, and allowed two runs. After Nally led off with a groundout on a 2-0 count, UCLA commit Kaniya Bragg walked on four pitches, Delaina Maae hit a single, and Annika Sogsti drove in Bragg with a single to left center on a bang-bang play at the plate. Maae later scored on a wild pitch, and Pacifica had a 2-0 lead before ever giving Norco's offense a chance to make noise.

Nally, a Long Beach State commit, wasted no time in establishing a rhythm, going 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first to preserve the 2-0 lead.

After that thought, Goluskin found her footing, and Norco would spend the middle innings progressively taking control of the game. 

Goluskin retired the top of the second in order, and Norco's offense responded with three runs. Florida-bound third baseman Alyssa Hovermale worked a walk from a 1-2 count, Riley Potter blooped a single to left center, Maddy Aguilera reached safely on a sacrifice bunt attempt, Tamyrn Shorter cleared the bases with a triple down the right field line, and Matti Severns drove her in with a two-out base hit as Norco finished the inning up 4-2.

The pitchers were locked in for the next couple of innings. Goluskin went three-up, three-down for both the third and fourth, and Nally remained strong, although she did give up another run in the bottom of the fourth when Kaley Cook drove in Dakota Potter with a single to extend Norco's lead to 5-2.

But from there on out, Pacifica's offense was the story of the game. Twice in the last three innings of the game, the Mariners lineup did what it'd struggled to do in nearly every game that their team lost or otherwise underwhelmed – extending rallies by stringing together base hits on a night when they weren't hitting for power. And it won their team a championship.

Michaela Meza and Liz Sigala opened the inning with singles, and Nally loaded the bases with one out reaching on an error that could've been ruled an infield single. Bragg drove in a run by getting hit by a pitch, and Maae tied the game at five apiece with a two-run single.

And Pacifica was far from done.

Sogsti got a base hit to load the bases again, and Counts gave Pacifica a 6-5 lead with a single to right field. Perez came in to pitch for Goluskin, but the Mariners kept rolling. Catherine Benitez drove in Maae with a slow roller to the second baseman, who flipped it to second base a split second too late on a play that could've been ruled a single, error, or fielder's choice. Meza hit her second single of the inning to drive in Sogsti, and Sigala made it a seven-run inning with a sacrifice fly before Norco ended the onslaught trailing 9-5.

However, the Mariners struggled to preserve their momentum, and Norco didn't waste time in continuing the scoring. The first two batters in the bottom of the sixth inning reached on infield errors, and Riley Potter cut the Cougars' deficit to 9-6 with a hard-hit single that deflected off Pacifica's third baseman. Before the inning was over, Norco made it 9-7 on an RBI single from Katie Terrazas.

In turn, Norco allowed the first two runners of next inning to reach on infield errors as well. Bragg walked, and an out later, Sogsti dealt the definitive blow of the game – a bases-clearing triple that put Pacifica up 12-7. Counts knocked Sogsti in with a single to centerfield, and Pacifica led 13-7 before Norco inserted pitcher Kimberly Neal who retired the next two batters.

Down six runs with two innings left, Norco was not down and out, but it needed to keep the pressure on. Instead, Nally conducted a 1-2-3 inning to nearly cement Pacifica's victory.

And her lineup got her even more insurance runs in the top of the seventh. In fact, she even helped her own cause. After Sigala was hit by a pitch, Nally smoked a double to drive her in, and her courtesy runner later came around to score on a base knock from Maae to give Pacifica its 15th run of the night.

While Norco wouldn't come close to pulling off the upset, it didn't fold, either. After Perez' resounding home run, Hovermale was later brought home on an RBI groundout from Terrazas. But that was all she wrote. Nally struck out Shorter, who'd wounded Pacifica earlier with her three-run triple, stranding one runner and making her team a Southern Section D1 champion.

Both teams will have the opportunity to continue competing for CIF Division 1 titles in the upcoming Southern Region championships, in which Pacifica and Norco will likely be the No. 1 and No. 2 seed, respectively.