It wasn’t the ending that Team USA wanted in the final of the World Cup of softball last weekend as Japan used a two-run inning to hold on for a 2-1 win. Still, it’s always fun going through Team USA rosters in softball and looking at all of the former California high school stars who were on the team.
Two of the young ladies were actually in their hometown of Sacramento this week practicing with the national team and playing an exhibition game. That would be infielder Ali Aguilar from Casa Roble of Orangevale and pitcher/infielder Ally Carda from Pleasant Grove of Elk Grove.
Aguilar is one of our favorites because when she was a freshman at Casa Roble in 2010 we kind of went out on a limb in naming her as State Freshman of the Year. There were some other contenders from Southern California and that pick was met with a lot of flak. The usual strength of competition arguments were made. But Ali has gone on to make that pick look good. She later went to Washington and became an All-American and is now on the national team.
Carda was on Pleasant Grove’s team in 2009 that upset Sheldon of Sacramento to win its first-ever CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I title. She was a sophomore on that team and both the Eagles and Huskies that season were two of the best teams in the state and nation. Carda went on to UCLA and was Pac-12 Player of the Year twice.
In addition to those two, there were eight others out of the 20 who were on the Team USA roster that was in the World Cup of Softball. That’s 10 of the 20 in all and it still shows that California remains the leader of all states in the nation in the sport. Here’s the complete list:
Ali Aguilar (Casa Roble, Orangevale) INF
Val Arioto (Foothill, Pleasanton) INF
Ally Carda (Pleasant Grove, Elk Grove) P/INF
Hannah Flippen (Bonita Vista, Chula Vista) INF
Delanie Gourley (El Capitan, Lakeside) P
Paige Halstead (Rancho Cucamonga) C
Jazmyn Jackson (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose) INF
Jessica Moore (Sutter) P
Delaney Spaulding (Etiwanda) INF
Janie Takeda (El Dorado, Placentia) OF
The only one of the group who was a State Player of the Year in high school was Moore, who was a State Small Schools POY for Sutter.
