La Habra softball outslugs Orange Lutheran to win battle in quarterfinals

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LA HABRA — La Habra’s postseason rallying cry of “Why not us?” grew louder and more confident Wednesday in the CIF-SS Division 1 softball quarterfinals.

The Highlanders scored 10 of their runs with two outs, slugged four home runs and received strong relief pitching from Samantha Cervantes to rally past Orange Lutheran 11-8 at La Habra High.

Center fielder Georgia Rickenbacker went 3 for 4 with a score-tying home run and threw out a runner for La Habra (23-7) at the plate.

Coming off a 6-4 win against top-seeded Murrieta Mesa in the second round, La Habra scored in every inning against the Trinity League champion Lancers (21-9).

The Highlanders, a co-champion in the Crestview League and ranked No. 16 in the division, play the winner of Thursday’s Etiwanda-La Mirada game in the semifinals Saturday.

La Habra interim coach Paul Caffrey believes it will be his school’s first appearance in the Division 1 semifinals.

“Our motto this whole playoff run is ‘Why not us?’,” said Caffrey, the school’s athletic director who stepped in after second-year coach Vince Peralta resigned May 11 for medical reasons. “We’ve been kind of rolling with that as far as we can beat anybody on any given day. There’s a lot of talent on this team. We have a great senior group (with) the leadership from them.”

“There girls play for each other,” Caffrey added. “They never back down. They knew what they were up against.”

Orange Lutheran took a 5-3 lead in the third inning on back-to-back home runs by Cate Medvitz and Carlie Snyder. Meditz hit a three-run home run and Snyder added a solo shot.

La Habra answered with six unanswered runs to take control.

Rickenbacker sparked the rally by throwing out a runner at the plate in the fourth to help Cervantes escape a jam. In the bottom of the inning, Rickenbacker tied the score 5-5 with a two-out home run.

In the fifth, Angelina Renteria led off with a home run to give the Highlanders the lead for good at 6-5. Alyssa Hernandez added a two-out RBI single before Rickenbacker capped a four-run outburst with a two-run single.

“It kind of feels like we have something to prove being in Division 1,” said Rickenbacker, a Dartmouth College commit. “This is our opportunity to show everybody that we are good enough to be here.”

La Habra’s Rylee Gruener and Danielle Sanchez, batting eighth and ninth in the order, belted back-to-back home runs with two outs the sixth.

“We just didn’t do a good closing out an inning,” Orange Lutheran coach Steve Miklos said. “The girls had a good season.”

Cervantes, a senior, entered with one in the third and held Orange Lutheran scoreless until Rylee Silva led off the sixth with a solo home run. The Jamestown commit kept her pitches to catcher Eliana Corona low and mixed speeds to earn the victory.

“We all have each other’s back,” said Cervantes, who pitched a complete game against Murrieta Mesa. “We all have confidence in each other knowing everybody is going to get the job done.”

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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 9:07 PM.