You win some. You lose some.
The Sierra Canyon softball team won some big games early. The Trailblazers were on the brink of winning the Mission League softball championship outright in their first year in the ultra-competitive league.
However, two late season setbacks gave the title to Notre Dame/Sherman Oaks. Sierra Canyon tied for second with Louisville of Woodland Hills and lost a coin flip for playoff purposes. The Trailblazers will be the designated third team from the league when brackets are drawn up this weekend.
A crazy 11-9 loss against Louisville came on Wednesday after a solid 2-1 nonleague victory against Rio Mesa the day before.
Lianna Lara homered and Hailey Shuler’s three-run bomb gave Sierra Canyon what it thought was a comfortable 5-0 lead after two innings against Louisville.
Louisville would battle back and score six runs in the fourth.
Sierra Canyon found itself ahead 9-8 in the sixth inning and was only three outs away from at least a share of the league championship. Lara hit her second home run of the game and Central Florida-bound infielder Izzy Mertes and freshman Natalia Areliz each had RBI singles.
However, Bella Wellbaum and Lily Rodriguez singled ahead of a Sophia Stein three-run home run and the Royals took the lead in the seventh and held Sierra Canyon for a dramatic, wild and crazy 11-9 slugfest win.
Shuler finished with 10 strikeouts for Sierra Canyon.
San Diego State-bound CeCe Cellura went 6 1/3 innings for the Royals before Lola Jefferies came on in relief for the final two outs.
Sierra Canyon didn’t have much left in the tank and lost to Chaminade 6-1 the very next day to close out the regular season.
Notre Dame is the league champion and Sierra Canyon and Louisville finished tied for second place with three losses each.
Shuler struck out eight of the 16 batters she faced Tuesday in the nine-inning game.
Ava Debs had an RBI double and Lara’s solo home run won it.