ANAHEIM, Calif. – With the tipping of his cap, tournament director Lance Eddy bid farewell to the event he has nurtured 36 times, 12 years as the Canyon High Invitational and the past 22 as the Michelle Carew Classic, in memory of the late daughter of MLB Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who died shortly after playing softball for and graduating from the school in far eastern portion of Anaheim.
While the 2023 Michelle Carew Classic may have been the last for Eddy before turning the reins over to J.R. Bennett, who has assisted him for several years, this year’s tournament was not short on excitement and outstanding performances despite the fact that the weather presented some real scheduling problems.
The Carew Classic ended on Saturday night with St. Francis coming up a bit short, falling 4-2 to Los Alamitos in the championship game.
First off, rain forced cancellation of action on Wednesday and Thursday and that meant Eddy had to change the format and create two divisions: Sweet Sixteen Gold and Fab Fifteen Diamond. Two games were played on Friday and two on Saturday, including the semifinals and finals. The Sweet Sixteen Gold was played at Peralta Park in Anaheim, and the Fab Fifteen Silver was contested at Yorba Linda High with some games, including the semifinals and championship, at Peralta.
Nine teams in the Cal-Hi Sports top 25 rankings as of March 21 graced the Sweet 16 Gold Division and two were in the Fab Fifteen Silver.
The championship game matchup between top-ranked St. Francis (Mountain View) and No. 6 Los Alamitos was a classic example of solid pitching facing top level hitting, and a couple of timely hits turned the tide in favor of Los Alamitos in a 4-2 victory.
The game was in fact a rematch from last’s Carew Classic won 4-3 by St. Francis.
After a quiet first inning, the action picked up in the second. Santa Clara-committed senior catcher Taryn Clements, who blasted a grand slam on Friday for all the Griffins’ runs in a 4-2 victory over No. 8 ranked Lutheran of Orange, led off the top of the second with a single. Her courtesy runner Alivia Magallanes went to second on a single by Ella Terrones. Bella Rodriguez followed with a single to load the bases.
Camryn Johnson then hit a grounder to second but an errant throw allowed her to reach and Magallanes scored on the play for the game’s first run. Kalie Matsuno followed with a grounder to third scoring Rodriguez and Los Alamitos had a 2-0 lead.
St. Francis answered right back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to tie the score. Junior Shannon Keighran, who pitched a no-hitter in a semifinal 1-0 victory over No. 7 Marina of Huntington Beach, led off with a single. Northwestern-bound senior Hannah Cushing doubled putting runners on second and third. Senior Chloe Cummings walked to load the bases. Senior Rebecca Quinn then reached on an error that scored Keighran.
St. Francis got its second and final run on a walk to San Jose State-bound senior Carly Cummings, but the Lancers left the bases loaded and their inability to put a big inning together ended up being their undoing.
Los Alamitos (12-2) got the timeliest hit of the entire tournament when Clements launched a solo home run to lead off the top of the fourth. The Griffins added a final tally in the fifth inning on a grounder to short by Giselle Alvarez that drove in Matsuno.
St. Francis (8-1) mounted a final threat in the bottom of the fifth on a single by Keighran and a double by Chloe Cummings, but Seattle University-bound senior pitcher Berkley Vance got a strikeout to end the inning.
From there, Vance retired six of the final seven batters to close out the victory. Her final line was two runs on eight hits with three walks and five strikeouts; despite the large number of baserunners, Vance got the outs when she needed to.
“The kids played really well all tournament, and we did get some timely hits in some crucial situations,” said Los Alamitos head coach Rob Weil. “Taryn Clements came up huge with that home run.”
“It's all about timing in a tournament like this,” Weil continued. “And our pitching held up well, all four pitchers, but Berkley Vance really stood out, and the thing I’m most proud of for her is last year she had an ACL injury and was off all year so she’s just coming into pitching form and pitching shape.”
With Keighran going in the semifinals and throwing a no hitter (one walk, one hit batter, seven strikeouts), Lancers head coach Mike Oakland went with his other ace, junior Kate Munnerlyn. She pitched well and gave up three earned runs, seven hits, one walk and four strikeouts.
Vance was named the Most Valuable Player/Pitcher of the Sweet Sixteen Gold Division. Clements, Rodriguez and Gabby Terrones were named all-tournament.
The all-tournament selections for St. Francis were Keighran, Munnerlyn and Carly Cummings.
“We had some good, competitive at-bats and they’re an unbelievably talented team and they made some really good plays,” Oakland said. “We competed hard and it was a good experience for us.”
Rio Mesa of Oxnard (13-1-1) won the Fab 15 Silver Division with a 1-0 title-game victory over Vista Murrieta.
Besides the no-hitter by Keighran, two performances that stood out in this year’s Michelle Carew Classic were turned in by pitchers Brianne Weiss of Orange Lutheran and Zoe Prystajko of Huntington Beach.
Weiss, a Notre Dame-bound senior had 20 strikeouts in a 3-0 win over Chula Vista Mater Dei Catholic.
Prystajko, a Stanford-committed junior, became the first pitcher to shut out current No. 5 ranked Norco since 2017 when she allowed just three hits and six walks with 17 strikeouts in a 9-inning, 2-0 victory.
