D4: Foothillers Rally, Stay On Course For Title Tilt With Hawks

By Adam Paul
Updated: May 26, 2026

2026 EAST COUNTY PREP SOFTBALL

SAN DIEGO CIF DIVISION IV PLAYOFFS

GROSSMONT 8, FRANCIS PARKER 6

By Adam Paul

LA MESA (5-26-26) – Trailing 5-2 the second seeded Grossmont Foothillers scored six runs over the fifth and sixth innings and made them stick despite a run scored in the top of the seventh by the visiting team as they completed the rally and victory over third seed Francis Parker on Tuesday afternoon to clinch a spot in the CIF Division IV championship game.

Francis Parker who earned their spot in the semis by making their way through the challengers bracket by beating Montgomery 6-3 would take advantage of three walks in the top of the first inning and push across a run with two outs when a dropped third strike occurred by Grrossmont allowing them to take a 1-0 lead.

The Foothillers would tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning when Alexis Holman grounded into a fielder’s choice.

Francis Parker would recapture the lead in the top of the third when Payton Zborowski crushed a one out solo shot deep to center field and later in the inning an error by the Foothillers led to a run scoring to give them a 3-1 lead. They would add to their lead in the top of the fifth inning on a fielder’s choice and a two out error to make it 5-2.

After an RBI single by Sahara Roope in the bottom of the third inning the Foothillers who trailed 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth would rally with four runs to take their first lead of the game 6-5.

Starting the rally for the Hillers was Roope who doubled in Skyler Glover, a couple of batters later with two outs Holman would drive in both Madison Busch and Roope to tie the game at 5-5 and Juliana Short drove in Holman to break the tie.

Grossmont would add another pair of runs of which both would be needed starting with Drew Winchester being hit by a pitch to score the first run and a sacrifice fly by Holman brought in the second run of the inning to give them a 8-5 lead.

Francis Parker would push across a run in the top of the seventh inning before Saraya Roope retired the next batter on a fly ball out to end the game.

Saraya Roope earned the victory for the Hillers as she went all seven innings in which she allowed six runs (four earned) on five hits while walking six and striking out nine.

The win for the Grosmont Foothillers is their seventh in a row and moves their record to 18-10-1 overall on the season.

With the win the Grossmont Foothillers avoid the playback game and will now take on the top seed Madison Warhawks who defeated fourth seed Liberty Charter 5-4 in their semifinal.

Both Grossmont and Madison met earlier in the season in non-league action in which the Foothillers led 5-3 early on before Madison pushed across four runs in fourth inning to help them win 7-5.

Championship wise the Warhawks previously made the Division IV title game in 2023 in which they defeated Palo Verde Valley 4-1.

Grossmont will look to win their third CIF title under head coach Jerry Lerud who has guided the Hillers since 1997. Lerud is 2-0 in CIF title games winning in 2011 against a heavily favored Poway team coached by Jim Bennet in the Division I title game 4-3 and in 2017 when they won the Division III championship against University City 5-3.