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Sports

Sailors' Softball Set for League Play

A tough schedule has prepared Marymount High for a run at its fifth straight title.

Despite the fact that the Marymount High varsity softball team is off to its worst start since head coach took over the program in 2006, he remain optimistic that his team will fare well in Sunshine League play and beyond.

"The first seven games of my first year we were 3-4 and right now we are 2-7," Clark said. "The only difference is that this season we're playing all CIF Division II, III & IV  teams instead of lesser teams."

Clark believes the Sailors' challenging nonleague schedule will serve them well when league play begins. Marymount is on spring break this week and will play a nonleague doubleheader against Louisville of Woodland Hills on Saturday at Penmar Field for its final tuneups before league play commences next Tuesday. The first game is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and the second at 12:15 p.m.

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"We were supposed to have played a league game last Tuesday but it was rained out," Clark said. "Perhaps all this extra practice time will work to our advantage. I think once we begin league we will be okay."  

The Sailors' strength of schedule rivals that of any school in the Southern Section. They have already played Division III powerhouses Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Alemany, as well as Bonita, the top-ranked team in Division II.

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Marymount opened the season with a seventh-place finish at the Palm Springs Tournament where it blanked Division III Palmdale 14-0 and routed Division I Riverside North, 8-3. After playing in back-to-back Division VI finals, the Sailors were moved up to Division V this spring.

"I think our two pitchers [ and ] are in the top 10 percent of pitchers in the nation and our shortstop [] is going to the University of Iowa," said Clark, who lamented that only three of the 10 girls on the Sailors' roster have travel ball experience. "We have three travel players who have to go to Orange County to play in the summer, fall and winter. That's how they get their full scholarships to college."  

Marymount travels to Westchester Park to take on Notre Dame Academy in its Sunshine League opener at 3:15 p.m. next Tuesday before hosting Windward at Penmar Field at 3:45 p.m. two days later

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