As soon as Kaylee Carlson’s fastball whizzed by the bat of Canyon’s Jezz Portillo in the seventh inning, the Mariners ace was instantaneously mobbed by her teammates in the pitching circle.
For Carlson and her fellow senior comrades, it was a celebration four years in the making.
In addition to tossing her fourth consecutive shutout of the postseason, Carlson pitched Pacifica into the CIF-SS Division 1 softball championship game with a 2-0 victory over Canyon on Tuesday in front of a packed house at Pacifica High.
“It feels amazing,” the veteran right-hander said after tossing a two-hitter. “We’ve worked four years for it and we finally made it. Being seniors, all of us just want it that much more, and of course, we didn’t want to lose in the (semifinals) like we did last year.”
The Mariners (28-4-1) came within a win of the CIF finals last season, but a crushing 3-2 loss to Norco left Pacifica on the outside looking in.
“We knew we didn’t want to repeat last year,” senior shortstop Nicole DeWitt added. “We keep telling each other this is our year to win it, and we knew we had to come out today and play hard.”
Carlson will take a 34-inning scoreless streak into the finals against M.L. King of Riverside (28-5). (Update: The Division 1 final will be Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine.)
The Comanches (20-7) came into the semifinals with a “team of destiny” feel to them. Canyon won three straight playoff games by one run, including back-to-back walk-off victories in the second and quarterfinal rounds.
Canyon pitcher Hailey Hilburn came out strong to start the game, striking out the side in the first inning. After a Taryn Young leadoff single in the top of the second inning, Carlson retired the next 12 straight Comanches she faced.
Pacifica jumped on the scoreboard in the second after Irieanna Naea was hit by a Hilburn pitch to start the inning. She advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Brooke Marquez, and got to third on a single from Lynzie Pacheco.
Naea scored on a passed ball, and Sara Jackson brought in Pacheco with an RBI single.
Carlson allowed just one hit after the second inning and at no point did a base runner advance past second base.
“You can just see the confidence,” Mariners coach Mark Campbell said of Carlson. “It’s just like the veteran fighter. They’ve been through the wars, so they know what to do when they get out there. And that’s how she is right now. She’s got the experience, she’s got the confidence.
“It’s her senior year and she wants this more than anything.”
Also in Division 1:
King 1, Cypress 0 (11 innings): The Centurions (22-9) extended the game by throwing out the potential winning run at the plate three times during extra innings, but the host Wolves (27-5) scored the deciding run on a suicide squeeze bunt in the 11th inning.
Sarah Hamre and Allie Wood nearly put the Centurions ahead in the sixth inning, but their long fly balls were tracked down at the fence.
In Division 5:
Citrus Valley of Redlands 5, Savanna 1: The visiting Rebels (26-3) were held to a season-low four hits and could not dig themselves out of an early 5-0 hole.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
