King City softball
King City High softball senior athletes (from left) Amber Mercado, Malaya Carrillo and Lisa Villanueva will be counted on to provide leadership as the Lady Mustangs prepare for Saturday’s CCS playoff game with Leigh High School in San Jose. (Contributed)

KING CITY — While Watsonville has locked up the Mission Division softball title, King City, Pacific Grove and Carmel were separated by one game going into the final week.

The importance in that is only three teams from the Mission earn automatic Central Coast Section (CCS) playoff berths. As the regular season came to an end, King City Mustangs softball team found themselves on the right side of the playoff bubble.

This year’s Mission Division title went to the Watsonville Wildcats, who lost just one game in the league, and claimed an automatic spot into the CCS playoffs. Now, the only question remaining was who would get the next two spots in the postseason.

King City had an 8-4 league record, while both Pacific Grove and Carmel were 7-3 going into the final week.

In their final game, King City lost to North Salinas, 13-1, in a non-league matchup. Pacific Grove beat Santa Catalina School, 13-0, to up their league record to 8-4, while Carmel lost to Everett Alvarez, 4-0, in a CCS play-in game.

The Lady Mustangs will continue their streak of making the CCS playoffs as they were selected by the CCS committee to go to the playoffs, along with Pacific Grove.

King City will be on the road for the first round of the CCS Division V softball playoffs as they play at Leigh High School in San Jose on Saturday, May 18, at 4 p.m.

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Jason Gallardo is the sports reporter for King City Rustler and Salinas Valley Tribune, a unified publication of Greenfield News, Soledad Bee and Gonzales Tribune. He covers high school sports for South Monterey County.

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