This season, such conditions have been rare for the spring sport.

A few minutes earlier, the Panthers staged their best performance of the year at their own field by taking in seven hits, limiting their mental errors and benefitting from a massive outing from senior Krystal Mascarenas to pull off an important 9-2 win over rival Cottonwood, securing a playoff spot in Region 6.

So the victory shower - which was quite tame - symbolized the joy the Panthers had for making the postseason for the third consecutive time, and doing it under Graves, a first-year coach.

"We stayed away from a lot of mental mistakes," Graves said. "We make a lot of young mistakes, and we didn't make too many today.

"We played good, solid ball."

Yeah, except for the first two innings, Graves said, when the Panthers (7-5 in region) didn't capitalize on having runners in scoring position. But the third inning changed his mind and created a fresh idea: His team could bang out a victory with a lot of runs.

In the third, West scored three runs on two big hits - a triple by Ashley Quarles that knocked in a run and was followed by a two-run blast from Mascarenas. That put the lead at 3-1. Mascarenas continued to tear up the Colts, who are 4-9 in region. The senior went on to pick up a double in the sixth and finished the game with four RBIs, as the Panthers crunched out five more runs in their final at-bat for a 9-1 advantage.

Cottonwood hoped to have a rally in the top of the seventh, but West pitcher Courtney Andrew wouldn't allow that. Though the senior gave up one run in the final inning, Andrew blitzed through the last four batters, thanks to Mascarenas, a catcher, throwing out a Cottonwood runner at second to close out the game.

Andrew threw a complete game with nine strikeouts, and allowed four hits.

"How did we win it?" Mascarenas said, repeating a question. "We came in here relaxed. Not so much relaxed that we didn't play hard, but we knew we had to get this win in order to get a better standing in region. It's later in the year, so we've improved a lot."

csun@sltrib.com

Softball

* West claims a Region 6 playoff spot behind Krystal Mascarenas HR, double and four RBIs.

* Courtney Andrew throws a complete game - nine strikeouts and four hits.