With its victory over league rival Corona Santiago in CIF Southern Section Div. I title game, Norco beats the Sharks for third time this season and all but clinches the state's No. 2 overall rating behind San Jose Mitty, which will be made official  when final state rankings are released later next week. Softball section championship game subplot sees Norco's Teagan Gerhart wins rubber match of pitching showdown with close friend Kamerin May.

By Ronnie Flores, Senior Editor

Irvine, Calif. -- The titanic pitching match up between Norco's Teagan Gerhart and Santiago's Kamerin May stole all the story lines when Big VIII League rivals Norco and Santiago of Corona met in the CIF Southern Section Div. I title game.

The showdown had subplots only found in a Hollywood script: best friends on rival teams that not only have been the two most dominant pitchers in the Inland Empire over the past four seasons, but split wins in the previous eight meetings of their storied prep careers.

The reality of the situation, however, was that Gerhart and company were the better team, as Norco turned its timely outs, and some gift runs allowed by Santiago, into a 5-1 victory at Barber Park's Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine.

It was the Cougars' third victory over their league rivals this season and a turnaround from last season when Santiago won all three games. Win the win, Norco secured the program's second CIF Southern Section title. The first under head coach Rick Robinson came in 2003 over Whittier California in Div. II.

"It was just a matter of time," Robinson remarked about his team capitalizing on its many numerous opportunities throughout the game. "We had a great group of seniors. We had just a great team camaraderie. Our players didn't care about who was the star and didn't care who was the one that got the job done. When we needed outs, we got them."(Read full post)