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Articles by Loren Kopff

La Mirada Girls Claim Suburban Title
Sports

La Mirada Girls Claim Suburban Title

UPDATE: The team  also won the regular season finale on Thursday May 10th vs. Cerritos at La Mirada, 5-4, again in extra innings, to finish the Suburban League campaign undefeated at 12-0. The Lady Mats finished 21-7 overall. They await their first round opponent in the CIF-SS playoffs which will be announced at 12:30 PM PT on Monday, May 14th at www.cifss.org.

From The La Mirada Lamplighter!

La Mirada~When La Mirada softball head coach Richard Trujillo scouted Cerritos for the first time this season on Apr. 27 against Norwalk, he hinted that he could have a secret weapon when his Matadores played Cerritos. Trujillo stuck to his word as La Mirada paid a visit to Cerritos this past Tuesday with the Suburban League championship at stake.

That secret weapon was freshman pitcher Valerie Alvarado and she was just as hot as the weather was on this early May Southern California day. Alvarado pitched eight and two-thirds innings and struck out 16 of the 34 batters she faced as the Matadores snuck past Cerritos 3-1 in 11 innings. After watching Cerritos and Mayfair share the league title last season, the Matadores reclaimed what had been theirs outright from 2001-2008. La Mirada, the eighth ranked team in the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section Division II poll, improved to 20-7 overall and 11-0 in the league.

Trujillo replaced senior Ambar Hickman with Alvarado with one out in the bottom of third following a walk to sophomore designated player Lilianna Herrera. Alvarado would strike out two of the three batters she faced in the frame as well as two in each of the next three innings. She fanned three in the seventh and eighth innings and never allowed a Cerritos runner to reach third base during her time in the circle.

"Whether you see her or not, she's effective," Trujillo said. "And that makes Ambar that much more effective. We still haven't counted [senior] Jenevie Rivas out but when they're not touching Val, why change?"