Softball: Four Catholic schools seek to continue CIF-SS title run

Looking to continue a four-decade-long run of excellence, four Catholic school teams won CIF-Southern Section Softball Tournament second round games on May 7.

Santa Margarita (Division 1), Flintridge Sacred Heart and Louisville (D-5) and Mayfield (D-7) all won their second round contests to advance to the quarterfinals on May 9. Semifinals will take place May 14, and finals May 18.

At least one Catholic school from the Los Angeles Archdiocese or Orange Diocese has won a CIF-SS baseball title each year since 2009. And at least one Catholic school has been a champion or runner-up every year since 1980, six years after the CIF-SS softball tournament was first played.

Second round results:

• Division 1: Seventh-seeded Santa Margarita (25-3) beat No. 10 Oaks Christian 8-3, and hosts Great Oak (22-3) in the quarterfinals.
• D-3: Bishop Amat was edged 2-1 by Diamond Ranch.
• D-5: No. 6 Flintridge Sacred Heart handled Newport Harbor 9-1; No. 8 Louisville outscored Covina 12-4; No. 10 Paraclete was outscored 22-7 by No. 9 Quartz Hill. In the quarterfinals, Flintridge Sacred Heart (18-5) is at Redondo Union (11-14), and Louisville (13-9) hosts Grace Brethren (20-3).
• D-7: Third-seeded Mayfield (12-8) routed Beverly Hills 10-9, and next plays the Academy of Academic Excellence (12-5) which defeated Bishop Conaty-Loretto 11-2.

In 2018, Chaminade (D-5) and Serra (D-7) each won CIF-SS titles. Other local Catholic school divisional champions in the past decade have included Marymount (D-6, 2009), Santa Margarita (D-1, 2010), La Salle (D-6, 2010), Pomona Catholic (D-7, 2011 and 2012), Bell-Jeff (D-6, 2013), St. Paul (D-3, 2014), St. Bonaventure (D-6, 2014, and D-5, 2015), Paraclete (D-6, 2015 and 2016), Mater Dei (D-1, 2016), and St. Anthony (D-6, 2017).

Mike Nelson is the former editor of The Tidings (predecessor of Angelus News). 

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