The school year was officially over earlier this week for King City High students with the exception of one particular group that is still looking to take care of some unfinished business.
The No. 3 seeded Mustangs advanced into the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Regional Division V championship game following a decisive 14-4 victory in five innings over No. 7 Balboa in the semifinals on Thursday afternoon.
And less than 24 hours later, King City will have to travel nearly 300 miles north to take on top seed Biggs for all the marbles in the teams’ 2025 spring season finale on Friday at 4pm.
“The girls come in with good energy and that’s kind of been the motto,” said King City head coach Art Carrillo. “We want to make a statement right away when we’re playing, setting a positive energetic tone right away.”
King City freshman Crystal Paramo set the tone right away Thursday with a three-run triple in the bottom of the first inning. She finished with four hits, including two doubles, one triple, three RBIs and scored three runs.
“It’s good to see a kid like that come out and be in this type of game, and still kind of not faze [Paramo],” Carrillo said. “The future is looking bright for this program and that she’ll be here for part of it for longer.”
Raylie Moore, a senior, finished with three hits, including a towering three-run home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the fourth inning that gave King City a commanding 11-0 lead.
“When the pitch was coming toward me it was like a huge meatball, my eyes widened huge,” Moore said. “I sat back, waited on it and just made solid contact. Once that contact was there, I just knew.”
Teammate senior Amity Hearne had one double and four RBIs, while sophomore Avery Munoz scored three runs for the Mustangs. Sophomore pitcher Alizah Carrillo put on another masterful performance in the circle after she surrendered four runs on six hits while tallying five strikeouts.
King City seems to be riding the ongoing wave of momentum it gained after capturing the program’s first-ever Central Coast Section title in last week’s 11-4 win against South San Francisco in the D-V finals.
“It sounds pretty insane. We haven’t done this in school history,” Moore said. “Since it’s my senior year, it definitely is a huge experience for me and my teammates. Even though we already won CCS, NorCal is our next option. It’s definitely a huge accomplishment for all of us.”
Moore said she expected to at least qualify for the CCS playoffs, which was the goal set by the Mustangs at the beginning of the season. But once they got their foot in the door it was like playing with house money.
King City now is on the cusp of bringing home two championship trophies in one season.
“It means the world to me to be able to get this far into my season with my favorite sport,” Moore said. “I’m just so grateful for everybody on my team that is supporting us, all our fans that came out to watch us for our NorCal games and our CCS games. This season just means the world.”
