Grossmont Hills League champion West Hills carried a 3-0 playoff record into last Friday’s Division II section championship game at SDSU. The ending wasn’t perfect for the second-seeded Lady Wolf Pack— a 3-2 loss to top-seeded Point Loma.
Still, Angelina McGuire, serving her third year with the program and first as head coach, called this year’s squad “special.”
“The girls loved playing for each other,” McGuire said. “We had 15 girls who loved playing every day and playing for each other.”
West Hills finished atop the six-team league with an 8-2 record and finished the season 20-10-1 overall.
“We have a very competitive league,” McGuire said. “We had to work hard and take everything day by day. Taking the pressure off, taking things smart, the team did all the things to get us here.”
West Hills opened up a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the second inning only to see the Lady Pointers (25-6-1) go up 2-1 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning. The Lady Wolf Pack tied the game, 2-2, with a solitary run in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The game’s outcome would be decided in the next frame as Point Loma pushed across the go-ahead run, 3-2, in the top of the fifth inning.
The Lady Pointers out-hit West Hills 6-4 in the game. Sophomore Leyton MacPherson (two hits) keyed the victors with two RBI while freshman Siena Bellistreri drove in the other run. Freshman Ella Poulin pitched a complete game with four walks and two strikeouts.
West Hills utilized two pitchers in the championship game. Senior Gianna Burgin hurled four innings with five hits allowed, two earned runs, no walks and seven strikeouts. Senior Ava Goodman pitched two innings with one walk, two strikeouts and no runs allowed.
Freshman Kiara Rabaya and senior Kristina Deal (double) each collected one RBI for the Lady Wolf Pack. Freshman Amber Foley scored both runs.
Junior Katy Spargo paced West Hills in the hitting department this season with a 0.534 average with 41 RBI, 12 doubles and five home runs. Deal ranked next with a 0.422 average with 20 RBI, 14 doubles, one triple and seven home runs. Rabaya ranked third with a 0.326 average and 12 RBI while Burgin followed with a 0.300 average and 13 RBI.
Burgin logged an 11-3 record with a 1.90 earned-run average with one save and 138 strikeouts in 107 innings.
Icing on the cake
Leyton McPherson and older sister Avery, a junior, are the daughters of former San Diego Gulls fan favorite and captain B.J. MacPherson, who played five seasons in San Diego in the West Coast Hockey League with 137 goals, 208 assists, 345 points and 699 penalty minutes in 309 regular season games. He later helped coach the team upon its transition to the ECHL.
McPherson also played five seasons of professional roller hockey with the Anaheim Bullfrogs.
He appeared in 52 playoff games with the Gulls, registeriung 19 goals, 48 points and 215 PIM.
Avery MacPherson led yjr Lady Pointers with a 0.409 hitting average with 21 RBI and three home runs. Leyton MacPherson ranked a bit lower on the team with a 0.364 hitting average but topped the team with 28 RBI.
B.J. MacPherson was paralyzed during a playoff game on May 4, 2001, in Boise, Idaho, against the Idaho Steelheads from a hit to the back of the neck. Doctors gave him little hope of ever walking again, much less fathering children.
But his tough resolve as a hockey player eventually led to progress and he returned to skating and played in a Gulls reunion game in 2009, though nowhere near 100 percent of his former self. He now serves as color commentator on the Gulls’ American Hockey League internet radio broadcasts.
No. 1 seed Point Loma hosted a Division III regional home playoff game Tuesday against No. 8 seed Port of Los Angeles, a 9-2 victory to advance the team to Thursday’s semifinals.
