Vikings still going perfect in Sunset

Hitting was contagious Tuesday for the Marina High softball team.

So, too, has been winning Sunset League games for the Vikings, who topped Edison, 4-0, to improve their first-place mark to 3-0 in league.

It started in the third inning, when junior Shannon Simmons singled. So did her sister, freshman Sandy, but a pair of Chargers errors allowed both players to score on the play.

Senior Mariah Nogueira, sophomore Jamie Sullivan and senior Erin Cuevas all followed with singles, Cuevas’ scoring Nogueira to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead.

“Our team’s very based on momentum,” said Cuevas, who also had an RBI single in the fifth to score Shannon Simmons. “Once one of us starts going, all of us start going. Shannon got it started for us, and after that everyone just kept hitting. We were practicing outside pitches all [Monday] and we really executed.”

The Vikings (17-3) did it on the pitching side, too, where senior Taysia Kaufman pitched the complete-game shutout. She allowed five hits, striking out three and walking none.

“We know [Edison] is good, and they’ve been good these last couple of years,” Kaufman said. “We just came out fired up. Our defense was solid, our hitting was solid. It was a team effort today.”

Marina has a first-place showdown against Los Alamitos (also 3-0 in league) today at home.

Edison, which fell to 13-5 and 1-2 in league, was paced by freshman Casey Africano (two for three).

“We have some things we need to work on,” said Coach Kendra Rosales, who had her team do sprints after the loss.

In action from over the weekend at the Woodbridge/Victory Softball Classic, Edison finished third in the Gold Bracket. After falling to tournament champion El Modena, 1-0, in a semifinal, the Chargers came back to beat Temescal Canyon, 5-0, in the third-place game.

Marina finished fifth in the Gold Bracket, finishing up the tournament with wins over Norwalk (4-0 in the fifth-place semifinal) and Villa Park (3-0 in the fifth-place game).

Fountain Valley was seventh in the Gold Bracket after edging Norwalk, 2-1, in the seventh-place game. The Barons (9-9, 0-3 in league) then lost a tough 4-3 game against Los Alamitos Tuesday.

Huntington Beach lost to Beckman, 3-0, in the Woodbridge Classic Bronze Bracket championship game.

All-tournament selections for the tournament included Edison’s Myranda Hoggatt and Africano, Kaufman of Marina, Allison Lang of Fountain Valley and Amanda Horowitz of Huntington Beach.

Meanwhile, the Ocean View softball team, top-ranked in CIF Southern Section Division IV, just keeps winning.

The defending Division IV champion Seahawks (14-5) improved to 2-0 in the Golden West League after drubbing Santa Ana, 12-0, on Friday.

Holli Floetker improved to 10-0 and also helped her own cause with a three-run homer in the first inning.

Vanessa Cardoza, Melissa Carroll and Celine Fuentes all produced doubles for Ocean View.