When her team needed her the most, JSerra High pitcher Liliana Escobar delivered a gritty 12-strikeout effort in the Southern Section Division 1 finals against La Mirada, leading the Lions to a 3-2 win and their first CIF title.<\/p>\n
Her ability to rise to the occasion time and again while playing in the highest division is why Escobar is The Times\u2019 high school softball player of the year, and no one is more proud of the senior than JSerra head coach Katie Stith.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiliana\u2019s one of the best players I\u2019ve ever coached,\u201d Stith said. \u201cShe\u2019s talented, of course, but what stands out is the type of teammate she is. She\u2019s so wise for her age and always made it a point to look out for the team. She wanted to win for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Escobar did her fair share of winning in her prep career. She had 14 victories as a junior was selected the Division 2 player of the year after posting a 1.20 earned-run average while striking out 239 batters in 140 innings. This spring she improved to 18-5 and gave up only 26 earned runs with 264 strikeouts and 47 walks in 153 innings pitched. She signed with the University of Florida on Nov. 12, one month after committing to one of the most successful SEC programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat she\u2019s accomplished the last two years is just incredible,\u201d Stith said of Escobar, who plays travel ball for the OC Batbusters. \u201cAfter battling an injury and having to sit out her sophomore season she could\u2019ve let that defeat her, but she fought hard to be at her best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Escobar recorded 10 or more strikeouts 15 times this season and outdueled Orange Lutheran ace Rylee Silva twice in Trinity League action, but perhaps her most impressive performance was a three-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts in the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals against defending champion Norco \u2014 her second win in three outings versus the Cougars this spring.<\/p>\n
She threw a five-hitter in the Lions\u2019 playoff opener against Yucaipa and lasted all eight innings with 10 strikeouts in a 5-4 triumph over Ayala in the second round. She struck out 10 again and gave up only three hits in a 1-0 quarterfinal victory over Garden Grove Pacifica.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiliana becomes so courageous and competitive when she gets in the circle,\u201d Stith added. \u201cShe believes in herself and executes every pitch, trusting the coaches every step of the way. I\u2019m grateful for the time I got to spend coaching her and the example she set for those to follow. This is just the beginning for her. \u2026 I think she\u2019ll do great things for the Gators.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When her team needed her the most, JSerra High pitcher Liliana Escobar delivered a gritty 12-strikeout effort in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[21172,23932,10362,48,52,51,139677,42340,47,50,49,143416,29812,143415,6309,143417,10196,1791,8934,1543,72],"class_list":["post-350624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-division","tag-innings","tag-jserra","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-liliana-escobar","tag-lion","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-occasion-time","tag-playoff-opener","tag-softball-player","tag-spring","tag-stith","tag-strikeout","tag-times","tag-victory","tag-win","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350624","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=350624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}