HOLTVILLE — The Imperial High Tigers clinched the CIF-San Diego Section Southeastern Conference’s Imperial Valley League softball championship with a resounding 19-0 victory over the Holtville Vikings here on Tuesday night, May 12th.
Going into Tuesday night’s game, the undefeated Tigers (17-5-1, 10-0 IVL) lead Brawley (16-10, 9-3 IVL) by three games in the loss column; the victory over Holtville (8-16, 1-10 IVL) clinches the IVL crown for Imperial over the idle Wildcats, who have the IVL bye week.
“The team is feeling good about the title,” Imperial coach Ashley Caro-Brown said. “The girls have built something here where the expectation has become winning, and they are living up to it.”
The Tigers, who defeated Brawley twice during the IVL season, won their third consecutive softball championship since joining the IVL in 2023 and fourth overall, including a Desert League crown in 2022.
On Tuesday night, Imperial got off to a massive eleven-run lead in the top of the first inning, adding six more runs in the top of the second inning behind an outstanding performance from sophomore Natalia Espinoza, who went a perfect 5-for-5 with five RBI, one run scored, and one double.
Other Imperial batters making a difference in the game were senior Raegan Ray, who went 2-for-4 with three runs scored, one triple, and two RBI; senior shortstop Mirella Barron and junior outfielder Addison Clark added two hits each.
Impressively, over their past four IVL softball contests, the Imperial pitching staff has tossed four straight shutouts, led by senior right-handed pitcher Maddie Magdaleno (10-2), who shut out Brawley 10-0, including scoring the 10-run rule walk-off run.
Tiger sophomore Cienna Alvarez and freshman Sierra Shelton followed Magdaleno’s performance with each tossing a two-hit shutout game against the Central Spartans last week, with the underclassmen duo then combining to shut out Holtville on Tuesday night.
For Caro-Brown, the key is the confidence that the younger pitchers get from the Tigers’ defense.
“Our defense is really good, and the pitchers know that they have their backs,” Caro-Brown said. “Sometimes pitchers get nervous with runners on base, but ours know the defense is going to help get them out of it.”
Imperial will finish up a six-game two-week final stretch to end their regular season when they host Holtville tonight, May 14th, at Mohamed Field at 6:30 pm.
Following tonight’s game, the Tigers will await the results of the CIF-SDS’s Divisional Softball Playoffs seeding meeting on Saturday, one of a number of Southeastern Conference teams looking for a high seed.
Imperial, currently ranked 9th in the CIF-SDS power rankings, hopes to maintain its high position in what should translate into a top one or two seed in the Division I playoffs.
“The top eight go to the Open Division, and so we want to stay nine, but last year we went to Open, which is an honor, but it was challenging,” Caro-Brown said.
For the Tigers, or any Southeastern Conference team, getting a high divisional playoff seed means teams are coming to the Valley and our weather, a scenario that has helped local teams get to the CIF-SDS divisional championship games.
“We have a chance to be a high seed in Division I, which would be ideal in terms of getting home games, which are critical this time of year,” Caro-Brown said.
Meanwhile, Brawley, whose coach Kevin Kerns will represent the Southeastern Conference at Saturday’s CI-SDS Divisional Playoff Zoom seeding meeting, is hoping to hold their current power ranking position of one for a top seed in Division III.