Peters Rescues Samohi in Playoff Victory:

When the CIF softball playoffs began Friday at Santa Monica High, a capacity crowd greeted the Ocean League champions. Coach Debbie Skaggs had prepared her team well for the most important games of the season, but there was an apparent problem. Trya Maxwell, the team’s star pitcher, was unavailable due to a family vacation, but sophomore Hannah Peters made sure there wasn’t a problem, after all. Not only did Peters pitch a shutout in an 11-0 win over Santa Paula, she drove in four of the Vikings’ first five runs with a sacrifice fly and a double, the latter hit coming with the bases loaded. The game ended after five innings because of the CIF’s mercy rule. If a team is ahead by 10 or more runs after five innings the contest is halted. For the second straight day, playoff ball was observed on campus. The stands at Samohi’s nearby baseball field had been filled Thursday for a first round playoff game. Interest soared when the baseball and softball teams both went undefeated in the league. The Samohi girls made the plays defensively and kept up a steady stream of hits against the Frontier League’s third place team. An example was the play of the shortstops. While Santa Paula’s shortstop had a difficut time, Samohi’s Lana Bowie made every play. Bowie was the Vikings’ leadoff hitter and triggered an offense that included nice work by Christine Foley, Kelsey Thomas, Nikki Hoffman and freshman Dana Sigman, among others. Bowie began the season as a catcher. The Vikings wins came consistently when Skaggs made several mid-season position changes. The victory moved Samohi to a second round game yesterday at Millikan, the second place team in the Moore League. The result was not available at press time. Last season Samohi was the Ocean League champion and won one playoff game before losing to La Mirada, which reached the division finals.