By Tim Menicutch
IJ correspondent
Round and round she goes. Where she stops nobody knows.
At least that’s the way Redwood High’s veteran softball coach Gary Casassa, who guided the Giants to a MCAL regular-season title, responds when pushed on the subject of favoritism for this week’s league playoffs.
“All six teams are good enough to win it,” Casassa said. “Whichever team is playing the best this week is the team that’s going to win it.”
Down the stretch run of the regular season, top-seeded Redwood (15-4) and No. 2-seed San Marin (12-6) unquestionably played the best.
The Giants won 11 of their final 12 games — their only loss in the last dozen games was a 1-0 setback to San Marin — and the Mustangs finished the regular season with a flurry, winning nine in a row.
One thing’s for sure. Redwood and San Marin, who both draw opening-round byes, will be the freshest teams having not played for about a week as they wait for Tuesday’s outcomes before joining the playoff parade on Thursday and Friday.
On the other end of the “who’s hot and who’s not” spectrum are opening-round foes No. 3 Marin Catholic (14-5) and No. 6 San Rafael (9-11), which plays Tuesday at Redwood in the single-elimination playoff format.
The Wildcats spent most of the season atop the standings before ace freshman pitcher Carly Slack was sidelined with sore ankles. Marin Catholic limped home in her absence, losing four of its past five.
San Rafael, on the other hand, was the surprise of the league by staying in title contention for the first month of the season before enduring a late-season tailspin of eight consecutive losses.
Marin Catholic coach Dave Albini believes the obvious favorites for the league banner are Redwood and San Marin.
“We played San Marin the other night and they are real solid all around the field — a strong team and well coached by Liz Hartmann, who’s done a great job with them,” Albini said. “But the same can be said about Gary (Casassa) and Redwood.”
A Marin Catholic revival obviously hinges on the health of Slack. Albini is not sure of her status for the playoffs.
“We’re going to see if she can throw on Monday and see how she feels and go from there,” Albini said. “If things go well she will pitch on Tuesday. If she’s not feeling right, she won’t.”
The dark horses in the playoff mix are No. 4 Tam (13-8) and No. 5 Terra Linda (11-8), which clash Tuesday at Tam.
The Trojans have postseason polish on their side after advancing to the finals of the North Coast Section Division III playoffs a season ago.
The Red-tailed Hawks, meanwhile, have the most feared slugger in the league, Aria Pogni, on their side. Pogni, who flirted with a .700 batting average all season, won the MCAL triple crown for the second time in three seasons with a .676 average, 12 home runs and 30 RBIs.
In the playoffs, however, Casassa puts a premium on pitching.
“The playoffs usually come down to pitching,” Casassa said. “All the teams have three or four strong hitters, so I think it will come down to whichever pitcher is going to be on her game this week.”
Based on statistics, Redwood hurler Lani Kaleikini was the cream of a solid crop of starting pitchers in the league. Kaleikini (16-2) led the league in wins and strikeouts (154) and her ERA of 1.62 was mere percentage points behind league-leader Ashley Bottomley (1.58) of Terra Linda. MC’s Slack (13-3, 1.98) and San Marin’s Hayley Gazdik (9-2, 2.33) also fashioned superb seasons in the circle.
After Tuesday’s opening-round, the remainder of the playoffs are at San Marin and all games start at 6:30 p.m. On Thursday, Redwood plays the lowest-seeded team remaining after Tuesday’s games and San Marin takes on the other first-round survivor on Friday.
The championship game is set for Saturday.
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