Three Teams In State Top 10 As SCC 2026 Softball Season Starts To Unfold

The strength of the South Coast Conference in softball continued to be evident last season when El Camino College finished in a tie for third place at the 3C2A State Championships in the Warriors' best finish in school history.

This season, El Camino is picking up where it left off, undefeated thus far at 8-0, including a 3-0 start to the 21-game conference schedule. 

This week's 3CFCA state rankings has El Camino at #4, followed by defending SCC champion Long Beach City (7-1, 1-1) at #5 and perennial power Mt. San Antonio (7-1, 3-0) rated at #7.

Another top team is Cerritos (5-3), although currently unranked in the Top 20 but like ECC and Mt. SAC off to a 3-0 beginning to South Coast play. 

Offensive-minded El Camino has twice scored 14 runs in a win and despite losing a large sophomore class from last season is led this year by designated player Trinity Martinez, who is batting .478 with a home run and 10 RBI in eight games. A top hurler to replace 2025 NFCA Pitcher of the Year Lexi Ramirez (now a junior at Southern Oregon University) is Raquel Alonso, who already is 4-0 with a 0.55 ERA. 

Long Beach has a slugger in catcher Zara Mineo, who has hit four home runs with 13 RBI and is tied for the SCC lead in batting with a .667 average. Her teammate rightfielder Lela Asi has 16 hits to tie Mineo on the hitting list. 

Mt. San Antonio made a huge statement on Feb. 10 in routing LBCC, 15-0. The Mounties have a hard-hitting rightfielder in Amanda Porterfield, batting .522 with a home run and 13 RBI, and a steady shortstop in returning All-SCC Second Team selection Sarai Raygoza. 

Cerritos returns All-SCC First Team pitcher Tatyana Cortez, who pitched 21 victories last season, and the Falcons put up 27 runs in a conference win already over Rio Hondo. Another returning All-SCC First Teamer is third baseman Marley Cortez, who is batting .435 with 10 RBI thus far. 

East Los Angeles began the '26 season with a 6-game winning streak, but then ran into the SCC buzzsaw to start conference play in consecutive losses to LBCC (4-0), Mt. SAC (5-2), and El Camino. The Huskies are paced by pitcher Nadine Gutierrez (6-2, 2.50 ERA, 69 strikeouts in 50.1 innings), who threw two shutouts in non-conference action. 

Los Angeles Harbor is 3-3 overall in the early going, led by shortstop Brianna Vialpando.  Compton is 2-7 and have a solid outfielder in Destiny Munguia (.350). Rio Hondo (2-6) is paced by centerfielder Alyssa Pallan, batting .391 with nine RBI. 

SCC was disappointed in the news that Pasadena City was unable to field a team this season due to not being able to secure a home field (played on the road all of last year), dropping the conference to eight teams for this year. However, PCC is expected to be back with a new home location for the 2027 season.

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID