El CAJON — Christian High School freshman left-hander Alyssa McCurty beat another top San Diego County team on Thursday with six strong innings in a 7-0 victory against Western League rival Cathedral Catholic High School.
McCurty (5-0-1, 0.40 ERA) allowed just four hits while striking out seven and walking two. Sophomore Sienna Staite finished the combined five-hitter and added two strikeouts for the Patriots (18-4-1, 3-0 Western League).
McCurty also hit an RBI single in the three-run second inning and walked twice. Senior Lucy Sherburne hit a two-run home run in the fourth off Mimi Botticelli, who went the distance and allowed six hits and seven runs, four earned, for the Dons (13-7, 2-1).
“CIF has us third and them fourth, so beating them is huge for CIF situations,” Patriots coach George Gentry said, referring to the power rankings that will be used to seed the playoffs. “And they’re the best team in our league, so I was hoping we could beat them.
“I didn’t think it would be 7-0,” Gentry added. Our girls, hitting-wise, pitching-wise, they’re super strong, especially being a small school. I’m super surprised how well they do but they are definitely a talented group this year.”
A week earlier, McCurty pitched a complete game for a 3-1 win against Mater Dei, the No. 1 team in the Union-Tribune’s High School Softball Poll.
“She’s outstanding,” Gentry said. “Her ERA is the lowest in San Diego right now. She’s doing legit. To beat them is huge.”
McCurty relied on her curveball against the Dons. Overall, she said it’s a huge advantage being a left-hander.
“From a batter’s point of view, it’s harder to see the ball coming out of your hand because it’s on the opposite side, and then the spin is just a lot different from right-hand pitchers,” she said.
Botticelli retired the Patriots on just four pitches in the bottom of the first, but Christian responded with four straight hits to open the second, including an RBI double by Sammy Baca and McCurty’s single.
“This was a big game,” McCurty said. “I helped my team out, but also it was a lot of my defense. Any hit they got off me, they were always there to back me up and pick me up whenever I was struggling. And that was really big for me.”
Beating a team like Cathedral “Is pushing us to become better and helping us with our rankings and everything. I’m just so proud of them for everything they’ve accomplished,” she added.
Sherburne’s homer, to left-center, gave the Patriots a 6-0 lead.
“Just right off the bat it felt amazing,” she said. “It was fun to get that extra push to really put us in the lead.”
