Prep talk: Seven of eight women's College World Series teams have SoCal players
If you want to win a Women's College World Series championship in softball, you probably need one, two or even three players from Southern California, which is loaded with high school softball talent.
Seven of the eight teams that will begin action in Oklahoma City this week have at least one SoCal product making major contributions on the roster. Only Texas Tech is missing the SoCal connection.
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Let's start first with Ella Parker, the standout from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame who leads Oklahoma with a .416 batting average, 13 home runs and 49 RBIs.
Florida has Taylor Shumaker from Esperanza, a freshman hitting .389 with 22 home runs and 86 RBIs. Texas has freshman pitcher Cambria Salmon from Beaumont. She's 7-1 with a 2.37 ERA.
Tennessee has Sophia Nugent, a Los Alamitos graduate with 17 home runs. Ole Miss has Persy Llamas, a freshman from Eastvale Roosevelt. She's batting .355 with 10 home runs.
Oregon relies on freshman Rylee McCoy from Oaks Christian. She's second in hitting with a .399 average, 19 home runs and 58 RBIs.
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And there's UCLA, which has Godinez grad Savannah Pola. She leads the Bruins in hitting with 96 hits, a .440 average, nine home runs and 48 RBIs.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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