Softball looks to return to CIF after last season

This spring, the girls’ softball team is looking forward to a promising season after a strong finish last year. The team began its ’24-’25 season in a new league, the Ocean League, after previously playing in the Bay League. The team was undefeated in their league games last season, ending with a 11-0 league record and an overall record of 20-7. The team’s success granted them a spot in the CIF-SS playoffs.

In Jan. 2024, the CIF-SS council passed a new competitive equity

play-off system, which places teams in divisions based off of end-of-

season data, known as a power ranking. This is a change from the

traditional system of ranking based on prior years’ placement. This

led to girls’ softball being placed in the bottom of Division IV and

playing the number one seed, Hillcrest in their first round. In a very

close game, Samo girls’ team won six runs to five. The team made it

to the quarter-finals, where they lost to Long-Beach Poly.

Varsity coach Jenny Forster explains how the team feels proud after

their run during last years’ season.

“It was really kind of a year we had been building towards for a

while. We had a lot of really strong seniors who’d been in the pro-

gram for a long time,” Forster said.

Coming off of a very strong season, the girls’ softball team looks to

rebuild after the seniors graduated. This includes their pitcher and

catcher, who Forster noted as being ‘the pair’ for a long time in the

program. The team is receiving two transfers from Palisades Char-

ter High School, who are to become a part of the team’s rebuilding

strategy.

Bernice Corona (‘27) comments on the state of the team after the

graduation of last season’s seniors.

“We have a really good squad right now, but we definitely lost a lot

of girls with experience.” Corona said.

Led by the seniors, the team saw consistent improvement through

the long season. Spring break generally falls in the middle of the sea-

son and has been seen as detrimental to the performance of the play-

ers in the past years. Despite this, Forster notes how the break did not

affect the improvement of the players as they continued to get better

as the season went on.

Ultimately, the girls’ softball team looks to create a strong start for

this season through the growth of their emerging talent.

“I just want to continue that sort of love of the game and the drive

to play our best at any given moment, and hope to keep instilling that

in our players,” Forster said.

Jenny Forster / Contributor

Softball comes together after an at home win following their second round CIF game against Duarte.