Rosary softball knocks off No. 1 Orange Lutheran to win Carew Classic ...0

ANAHEIM — The championship game of the Michelle Carew Classic on Saturday at Peralta Park was a dream matchup between former Trinity League rivals, as well as two of the county’s best softball teams.

Orange Lutheran, the top-ranked team in Orange County, took on No. 5 Rosary Academy, and it was the Royals, led by their potent offense, who won the tournament with an 8-4 victory over the Lancers.

Rosary scored eight runs in each of its last four games in the tournament and scored a total of 37 runs over all five games.

“The thing is we don’t go for the big hit,” Rosary coach Tom Tice said. “We go for the little hit and we just try to punch it through and shorten our swings and that lets us handle those faster pitchers. We’re not afraid to bunt, we’re not afraid to slap and sneaky bunt and our base runners are aggressive and sometimes I get people thrown out at home and we still score eight.”

Of Rosary’s 11 hits against the Lancers, a double by Audrinah Barajas in the sixth inning was the only one for extra bases.

Rosary’s leadoff hitter, Hayden Huerta, went 4 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored.

No. 2 hitter Jenna Caldera went 1 for 3 with an RBI and one run scored and No. 5 hitter Domonique McCoy was 1 for 3 with two RBIs.

“I definitely think we shocked a lot of people,” Huerta said. “And we were just fired up. We knew that we had to prove ourselves and we had a job to do and we did that job.”

In three of their five victories in the tournament, the Royals had big innings late to put games away.

Rosary led 5-4 against the Lancers before pulling away with three runs in the seventh.

In an 8-5 victory over Fullerton in a semifinal earlier on Saturday, Rosary was losing 5-2 and then scored three runs in the fifth to tie the score and three in the sixth to pull away.

“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” Tice said. “I hope we keep peaking. We’re playing as good as we’ve ever played. The enthusiasm and excitement level of these kids has really gelled. It’s really coalesced into a special group.”

Leadoff hitter, Sierra Nichols went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored to lead the Lancers’ offense.

While Lancers coach Steve Miklos would have liked to see a different outcome against Rosary, he was pleased with his team’s overall performance in the tournament.

Miklos was especially proud of the Lancers’ effort in a 1-0 victory over perennial powerhouse Norco in a semifinal early Saturday.

“They just got hot,” Miklos said of the Royals. “They put the ball in play. You got to take your hats off to them. But we got some good work in and we had a really good week, getting ready to go back in the league play next week. Norco win today is huge. That was a good win for us.”

The Royals were in the Trinity League with the Lancers for several years before being moved to the Pacific Coast League for the 2025 season.

Prior to Saturday’s victory, the Royals had lost 20 games in a row against the Lancers.

The championship game was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. but didn’t begin until about 9:15 because the game that was played before the championship was taking place on the same field and also started quite late.

The first pitch was delayed even further when one of the umpires arrived late, leaving both teams waiting near their respective dugouts. The championship game ended near midnight.

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