PACIFIC PALISADES — An unprecedented season turned into an unexpected postseason run for the Gardena High softball team.
In each round of the CIF Los Angeles City Section Division II playoffs, the Panthers faced an opponent seeded higher than them, and in each round, ninth-seeded Gardena came out triumphant.
To become section champions, Gardena was asked once again to defeat a higher-seeded team in No. 3 Palisades at the Stadium By The Sea at Palisades High on Thursday.
After a roller-coaster ride of a season hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the finale was nothing different.
A five-run, sixth inning propelled Gardena to a 10-6 victory over Palisades to be crowned the City Section Division II champions.
“I have some pretty resilient girls,” said first-year Gardena coach Shar Woods. “As much as they work my nerves, they really work really, really hard. They don’t give up.”
The Panthers entered the postseason winless in nine games. They finished with an overall 4-9 record, with all four wins coming in the postseason.
“I think our strength of schedule helped us in the playoffs,” Woods said. “Playing tough teams prepares us so this doesn’t seem like such a hard task.”
The playoff run included an upset victory over top-seeded Fairfax.
“A lot of teams took us for granted,” said Panthers catcher Jasmine Beltran, whose run-scoring triple in the top of the seventh extended the Panthers’ lead. “A lot of teams said, ‘oh, they’re 0-9. Easy win.’ That got our spirits up because we were proving everyone wrong.”
Championship softball.
On a football field.
Didn’t matter for the underdogs.
No. 9 Gardena tops No. 3 Palisades on home turf (lol) to win the @CIFLACS Division 2 championship in a rollercoaster season.
Here’s footage from this afternoon’s game!@DamianCalhoun + @breezepreps pic.twitter.com/dDrQC1XhQr
— Vincent Nguyen (@ReporterVince) June 18, 2021
The championship stage was set on the Palisades football field.
No dirt. No fresh cut grass. Just turf.
And in a season full of peculiarity, the uncharacteristic softball field didn’t phase the Panthers.
“It’s different, but you just always have to adjust as a player,” said third baseman Vanessa De La Torre, who capped the Panthers’ five-run sixth inning with a two-out RBI single. “Every game is different, so it’s always good to just be great no matter what.”
Palisades (8-5 overall) breezed through its playoff run and outscored its opponents 39-7. It did not give up a run in the first two rounds and scored at least 10 runs in each game.
But Palisades conceded two runs at the top of the third inning of the championship game against Gardena.
The roles were reversed on defense as well, as Panthers sophomore Lilliana Gudiel had faced the minimum after three innings. She had a no-hitter through four innings and finished with six strikeouts, three hits allowed and four runs in 4 ⅔ innings.
“I just wanted to do it for my team,” said Gudiel, who had a one-run double in the third inning. “Our motto today was ‘do it for the girl next to us.’ I knew if I gave my team my all, they wouldn’t let me down.”
Gardena freshman Mary Jane Zendejas went the final 2 ⅓ innings in relief and recorded the game’s final strikeout.
The Dolphins cut the Panthers’ lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth with an inside-the-park home run.
Three consecutive base hits gave Palisades a 4-2 lead and bumped Gudiel out of the circle in the fifth inning, before Gardena took a three-run lead after the sixth.
Palisades junior Julia Gueda pulled the Dolphins within two with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, but back-to-back triples from Beltran and senior Robin Gage made it a 9-5 Gardena lead in the top of the seventh.
