{"id":240372,"date":"2026-03-28T04:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/240372\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:30:08","slug":"katelynn-mathews-powers-fullerton-softball-past-long-beach-poly-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/240372\/","title":{"rendered":"Katelynn Mathews powers Fullerton softball past Long Beach Poly \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.\u00a0Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n

LONG BEACH \u2014 Fullerton\u2019s softball team entered the week in the discussion for the top spot in the Orange County rankings.<\/p>\n

The Indians, who stayed at No. 2 in the rankings, closed the week Friday with an even stronger case for a promotion.<\/p>\n

Katelynn Mathews pitched a three-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts and her freshman sister and catcher Kaylee drove in a run as Fullerton defeated Long Beach Poly 4-0 at El Dorado Park West.<\/p>\n

Naia Su\u2019e had a two-run double and Hayley Brook, Kaylyn Yi and Melia Vera each had two hits for Fullerton (12-1). The Indians won on the same afternoon that Santa Margarita knocked off No.1\u00a0 JSerra 1-0 in the Trinity League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we should have been No. 1 last week,\u201d Fullerton coach Trevor Holton said. \u201cWe play Los Altos (last week) and we beat them and Los Altos turns around and beats JSerra. JSerra is a good team and they have really good pitching and they deserved to be there and they did really well in Bullhead (in the Dave Kops tournament).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut No. 1 is hard,\u201d the coach added.<\/p>\n

Fullerton survived its own challenge against Long Beach Poly (7-1), the reigning CIF-SS Division 4 champion.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits loaded the bases in the seventh to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. But Mathews struck out the No. 2 and No. 3 hitters in the lineup to escape her second bases-loaded jam and improve to 8-0.<\/p>\n

Mathews, a junior who is committed to Cal Baptist, tweaked her right ankle \u2014 which she uses to push off the rubber \u2014 on the final pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in pain,\u201d said Mathews, who hunched over heading toward the dugout. \u201cI hurt it at the end of travel ball, end of the fall. Our last game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory brightened Mathews\u2019 mood. Last season, she took the loss as Long Beach Poly defeated Fullerton 8-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good (to win) because the last time we played them, I didn\u2019t do too well,\u201d said Mathews, who on Friday recorded a season-high for strikeouts, walked three (one intentionally) and hit two batters. \u201cI just had to stay relaxed (with the bases loaded). I just trusted my defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Matthews sisters showed strong chemistry as a battery, especially when Long Beach Poly loaded the bases in the fifth and seventh.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy hitting her spots (and) letting me work for her, it all paid off her,\u201d Kaylee said of her sister.<\/p>\n

Fullerton scored three runs in the first against starter Tegan Breaux. After Brock opened the inning with a walk and took second on a single Yi, Su\u2019e drove in both runners with a one-out double to left.<\/p>\n

Kaylee capped the inning with a two-out single to center.<\/p>\n

Fullerton pushed its lead to 4-0 in the sixth on a RBI single by Vera. The senior drove in freshman Grace Kim, who had double.<\/p>\n

The Indians finished with 10 hits in their final game before the Carew Classic next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth is No. 1 (for us),\u201d said Holton, whose team played without Oklahoma commit Malaya Majam-Finch (groin). \u201cAnd then staying humble and keep grinding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.\u00a0Subscribe now LONG BEACH \u2014 Fullerton\u2019s softball team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,6916,2628,5479,85900,2044,131,133,132,611,127],"class_list":["post-240372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-dan-albano","tag-fullerton","tag-high-school-all-sports","tag-high-school-softball","tag-high-school-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-orange-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}