In a game that would never seem to end, Eastlake High School edged Christian High School by a score of 2-1 in a game that went 12 innings last Saturday in El Cajon to determine this year’s Southern California regional softball champion.
The season is finally over for both teams, somewhat mercifully, in fact.
Eastlake, the No. 6 seed in the Division II bracket, finished the 2025 spring season with a 23-11-1 record while Christian, the No. 1 seed in the bracket, finished its otherwise season of plenty with a final 24-9-1 record.
This is as far as any team can currently go without a dedicated state championship.
For comparison, second-seeded Salinas defeated fourth-seeded Liberty, 4-1, to capture the Division II Northern California regional title.
When all was tabulated, Christian had played 34 games this season while Eastlake had played 35.
“We knew this would be the hardest game to get through,” Eastlake head coach Jandi Diego said. “We had played them earlier in the season and we lost 7-2. They’ve got good pitching and they’ve got good batters. We were able to capitalize on their miscues. The girls kept passing the bat to each other. It was tight.”
“The season went very well, even though we had a hard time in the Open Division with us being a small school of 430 students without a junior varsity program,” Christian coach George Gentry said. “It was hard to compete, but the girls did a great job. They showed a lot of heart.”
Eastlake has a student enrollment of 2,783 by comparison.
Saturday’s championship game could have gone either way with plenty of scoring opportunities by both teams. Eastlake totaled 10 hits in the game with 10 runners left on base while Christian had eight hits and stranded 16 runners on base.
Ultimately, it came down to clutch pitching to keep runners from crossing the plate.
Christian freshman Alyssa McCurty started and pitched the first five innings with four hits, one run allowed and three strikeouts. Sophomore Sienna Staite came in for one inning with no nits and one strikeout while junior Ava Barrios pitched the final six frames with five hits, one run allowed and four strikeouts.
Eastlake junior Addison Suriano was the workhorse by pitching all 12 innings with one earned run and 14 strikeouts. Suriano faced 54 batters and finished the marathon game with 226 pitches thrown.
The three Christian pitchers combined to throw 177 pitches, including 94 by Barrios.
Suriano pitched in every one of Eastlake’s seven playoff games (four in the section tournament and three in the regionals). She won all seven by allowing eight runs on 41 hits with 43 strikeouts.
Eastlake fans began changing “MVP, MVP!” as Suriano returned to the pitching circle each inning as the sun sank further toward the horizon in the gathering gloom.
“It’s surreal,” Suriano said. “The amount of effort these girls all put into the season paid off, especially with the seniors leaving.
“It was exciting. Every single pitch I put everything I had into it.”
The visiting Lady Titans scored in the top of the first inning on lead-off single by senior Deziree Gomez and a double by senior Mackenzie Olshenskie.
The hosts quickly countered on a home run by junior Keels Carrizosa in the next inning. Teammates were abuzz with anticipation as she rounded the bases home.
Few in the ballpark would guess what would transpire next — nine scoreless innings.
“Both teams had plenty of chances to win,” Gentry said. “You have to give credit to the pitchers. They came up big on both sides. It was a very well-balanced game.”
Eastlake finally broke the stalemate in the top of the 12th inning as junior Mia Vasquez doubled and came around on a single by Gomez.
That left it up to Suriano, who retired the side in order on two strikeouts and a ground ball.
Gomez finished the game as the Lady Titans’ top hitter with three hits while senior Jaelene Jenkins had two hits.
Senior Ashley Wood keyed Christian with three hits.
Suriano said she was pitching just has hard at the end as at the start. The 12 innings were not a personal record. She pitched 15 innings as a freshman in a game against Brawley, and she also won that game.
She would like to have one pitch back, however.
“It was stressful (after the home run to tie the game),” Suriano said.
But the victory proved to be a stress reliever as the Division I section and regional championships were the first in history for the Lady Titans.
“It’s so cool,” Suriano said. “I didn’t know that going into CIF and state. It’s an honor.”
The game could have ended much earlier if an Eastlake player hadn’t been thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch.
The Lady Pats loaded the bases in the bottom of the third inning but ended the inning on a deep fly ball to left field.
Christian advanced a runner to third base in the bottom of the seventh inning, put two runners on base in the bottom of the eighth inning, had runners on second and third bases in the 10th inning and loaded the bases in the bottom of the 11th.
But the hosts just couldn’t somehow produce the walk-off win.
SoCal scoreboard
Eastlake scored upset wins in each of its three regional games, starting with a 3-2 victory at No. 3 Bakersfield Christian (23-10) on June 3.
The Lady Titans shut out second-seeded Westlake (20-15) by a score of 3-0 last Friday in a game moved back a day because of heat concerns.
Christian received a bye in the quarterfinals before shading fourth-seeded Monache, 1-0, in the semifinals on June 5.
Alyssa McCurty drove in the semifinal game’s one run in the bottom of the sixth inning as senior Tyler Krystek scored the winning run.
On the season, senior Kaitlyn Moody keyed the Lady Patriots with a 0.421 hitting average in 34 games with 25 RBI and three home runs. Next up were senior Lucy Sherburne (0.387, 29 RBI, six home runs), Wood (0.371, 13 RBI), junior Sammy Baca (0.343, 27 RBI, eight home runs), McCurty (0.297, 16 RBI, five home runs), Krystek (0.297, 16 RB) and Carrizosa (0.267, 14 RBI, four home runs).
Barrios led the team with a 12-7 record, one save and 109 strikeouts in 98.1 innings while McCurty (8-1) paced the team with a 0.86 earned-run average, two saves and 75 strikeouts in 81.1 innings. Staite finished 4-1 in the pitching circle with a 2.82 ERA, one save and 21 strikeouts in 44.2 innings.
The Lady Pats batted 0.305 as a team with 27 home runs and posted a cumulative 2.53 ERA with 207 strikeouts in 230 innings.
Eastlake’s leaders included Olshenskie (0.442, 31 RBI, seven home runs), junior Kaili Balajadia (0.353, nine RBI), senior Ryan Pham (0.343, 10 RBI), senior Bri Ayap (0.340, six RBI), junior Bryn Grayson (0.333, eight RBI), Gomez (0.321, 15 RBI, two home runs), senior Jaz Hernandez (0.317, seven RBI), Vasquez (0.286, 10 RBI) and senior Rachel Del Busto (0.269, 14 RBI, two home runs).
Suriano made 27 pitching appearances with an 11-7 record, one save, 2.38 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 155.2 innings. Balajadia was 4-1 in 10 appearance with a 2.52 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 37.1 innings,
The Lady Titans hit 0.301 as a team with 14 home runs and logged a 2.35 team ERA with 190 strikeouts in 232.1 innings.
CIF scoreboard
Christian is no stranger to CIF championships having won titles in 1986 (Division II), 1994 (Division IV), 1996 (Division IV), 2000 (Division IV), 2002 (Division IV), 2016 (Division IV) and 2017 (Division III).
Christian finished as this season’s City Conference Western League champion with a 6-2 league record, one game ahead of Point Loma (28-6-1), which would go on to win the Division III SoCal title with a 4-1 win over South Gate Legacy (26-8).
The Lady Patriots received the No. 4 seed in the section’s Open Division playoffs, which guaranteed them a berth in the state playoffs. Christian opened the double-elimination bracket with a 7-4 win over fifth-seeded Cathedral Catholic (17-12) before dropping a 5-1 decision to No. 1 Mater Dei Catholic (27-7).
The Lady Pats rebounded with a 12-7 win over Cathedral Catholic to eliminate the Lady Dons and earn a rematch with Mater Dei Catholic. The Lady Crusaders, the eventual Division I SoCal champion, won the double-elimination match 4-0 en route to claiming the division title with a 6-1 win over third-seeded Bonita Vista (25-8).
Alyssa McCurty and Krystek each had three RBI in the first game against Cathedral Catholic while McCurty drove in five runs in the playoff rematch and Baca had three RBI.
Eastlake (0-6 in Metro-Mesa League play) opened the Division I playoffs with a 3-2 win over seventh-seeded Steele Canyon, defeated sixth-seeded El Capitan (16-16) by a score of 7-2 and eliminated the Lady Cougars (18-14-1) in a double-elimination game, 10-1, before shutting out No. 8 Rancho Bernardo (13-15-1) by a score of 9-0 in the championship game played May 30 at SDSU.
Steele Canyon defeated 10th-seeded Carlsbad (8-15) by a score of 6-1 behind three RBI by junior Marina Gonzalez and 10 strikeouts from junior Belle Will to advance to double-elimination play.
Following the first loss to Eastlake, the Lady Cougars edged 10th-seeded San Marcos (16-14) by a score of 3-2 behind two RBI from senior Hailey Trujillo and seven strikeouts from Will and topped El Capitan by a score of 7-2 behind two RBI from Will to draw a rematch with the Lady Titans.
El Capitan defeated 11th-seeded Our Lady of Peace (6-20) by a 3-2 score behind two RBI from junior Kylee Frazier to advance to double-elimination play. The Lady Vaqueros stung third-seeded San Marcos by a score of 4-3 to keep going in the bracket before stopped with back-to-back losses to Eastlake and Steele Canyon.
Christian loses six players to graduation, but Gentry said his team shouldn’t necessarily suffer too much from the impending talent drain. “All my pitching is returning but we’re losing a lot of offense,” he said.
Eastlake is losing nine players to graduation, but Suriano fortunately is not one of those players. College scouts will surely be out to watch her games next season if she already hasn’t caught someone’s eye.
Open Division section champion Mater Dei Catholic finished as the top team in Southern California after derailing top-seeded El Modena (12-3) by a score of 12-3. Senior Analesse Garcia led the howitzer barrage with four RBI with a double and home run while sophomores Chuck Masingale (double) and Maya Matthies (home run) each collected two RBI in the rout.
The Lady Crusaders overcame a 2-0 El Modena lead with a single run in the fourth inning, a big six-run outburst in the fifth inning and five more runs in the top of the seventh inning to put away the championship. MDC out-hit the Lady Vanguards 13-6.
