Jon Moore has been coaching softball at Torrey Pines High School for 28 years and, with 530 career victories, is the third all-time winningest coach in San Diego Section history.
So, yes, Moore knew he was going to have a top-notch squad that would compete for the Open Division championship again this spring. And it showed on Wednesday in a 6-0 home shutout of El Camino in which Kathryn McGinty allowed only two hits and struck out 11 in six innings.
The playoffs await. But first, the No. 5-ranked Falcons (20-4-2, 5-2) have a first-place showdown against La Costa Canyon (19-7, 5-1) in Friday's Coastal League finale. It is also Senior Day at Torrey Pines’ new softball field.
“For these seniors here, this is their fourth 20-win season, and they have a chance to win their third league title,” Moore said. “We’re pretty solid. We don’t hurt ourselves too often. The girls are very coachable and fun to be around. I like the camaraderie, and their work ethic is really good.”
El Camino (9-17, 0-7) did not get a hit until the fifth inning, when Cambria Lyon beat out an infield squib short of the pitcher circle. Kailey Dain lined a clean double to left-center to lead off the sixth, but McGinty (10-1) sandwiched two strikeouts around a tapper to the mound to preserve the shutout and lower her ERA to 0.66. She is 20-5 with a 1.35 ERA in her career.
“It’s all the girls on the team,” said McGinty, who plans to attend the University of South Carolina but not play next year. “We all get along so well and play for each other.”
Nine different Falcons had hits, with junior center fielder Kelly Whelihan going 2-for-3 with 2 runs. She is the daughter of former Chargers quarterback Craig Whelihan, who is a Torrey Pines assistant coach in football. Like her father, Whelihan plans to play at the University of the Pacific.
“It’s fun to show up every day,” Whelihan said. “These girls are my best friends. There’s one girl (Georgia Bilski) I’ve been playing with since I was 6 years old.”
Torrey Pines lost to LCC 3-0 on April 24.
“I’m ready to come back to LCC,” Whelihan said. “We didn’t come in with the right mindset last time. It’ll be Senior Day. We’re going to win it for them.”
A pair of singles by Riley Cullivan (.290) and Ava Fagin put the Falcons up 1-0 in the second inning. In the third, Hadley Nisnick and Whelihan singled and scored on a groundball and throwing error for a 3-0 lead.
Whelihan (.356) led off the fifth with a single up the middle and her second stolen base allowed her to score on a booming double to the base of the right-field fence by born-to-be-a-catcher Mina Crouch (.373, 20 RBI). Reagan Cullivan (.301, 15 RBI) drove in Crouch with another double.
“(Moore and I) have both been coaching for 25-plus years, and it’s always fun to play one of his teams,” El Camino coach Dan Worley said. “They’ve got a good squad. I think they’ll do really well in the playoffs.
“They hit, field, pitch with the best of them. Very few errors. That’s a trademark for Jon’s teams. He’s got some really good players.”
Awaiting Torrey Pines now is LCC and coach Julie Neubauer, who was an assistant to Moore for several years before taking over the Mavericks' program three years ago. Neubauer also teaches at Torrey Pines, so she knows the Falcons as well as any opposing coach.
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune .
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