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May 5, 2026
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
With the Olympic League title on the line last Thursday, there was plenty of offense between host Valley Christian High and perennial powerhouse Whittier Christian High. However, the combined 24 runs and 24 hits were not the only fireworks in the contest that took close to three hours to complete.
V.C. head coach Chet Kingery was ejected with none out and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning with a 2-0 count to Whittier Christian’s Mia Camacho. The Heralds had already scored a run in the inning to increase their lead to 9-6. When the final out was recorded, Whittier Christian had defeated the Defenders 15-9 to win its sixth league title in the past seven seasons.
Kingery was upset that the lines to the batter’s box had been erased, making it tougher to determine if a pitch was a ball or strike. During his argument, Kingery, who was ejected for the first time in his high school coaching career, told the home plate umpire, “she knows the strike zone better than you”, referring to his daughter, senior catcher Peyton Kingery.
“It was [the Whittier Christian hitters] erasing the line, and then getting really close to the plate,” said Chet Kingery. “So they took away the whole inner half of the plate because [the umpire] is not calling it. If we miss in, we hit them. So, we’re obviously not missing in if my catcher is still catching it. Then he takes the whole outside half away because with a tight umpire, you don’t get anything on the outside out. Now you’re throwing the ball on a tee for them, and they capitalized on it, and we didn’t.”
In the last 18 meetings with the Heralds, V.C. has won only twice with the latest coming last season in a 14-1 contest in La Habra. Since 2008, Whittier Christian leads the season series 23-13 and since 2021, the Heralds have won 45 of its last 47 league contests.
“My main message was don’t let another team take the game away from you,” said Whittier Christian head coach Dale Van Duyn, referring to last season’s loss to the Defenders. “Play our game and go after them; don’t sit back. That was my main message to them. I don’t ever tell my team it’s revenge time. I don’t play that game. My main focus is play good fundamental softball; play our game and we’ll come out on top.”
The Heralds grabbed a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, highlighted by Camacho’s two-run home run on the 10th pitch she saw from junior Rachel Zhang. They would send eight batters to the plate in the inning, but so did the Defenders in the bottom half of the frame. With one out, junior right fielder Tallulah Ireland singled to left field to plate Peyton Kingery and after Sofia Gonzalez walked junior first baseman Samantha Mora to load the bases, senior third baseman Brianna Ramirez was also walked, bringing in senior shortstop Aubrielle Ramirez.
Whittier Christian added a pair of runs in the second, thanks to a one-out home run from Rylee Cull and scored three more in the fourth to own what looked like a commanding 8-2 lead. However, the Defenders began to chip away in their half of the inning, all with two outs. Junior third baseman Lydia Dietz singled to left and Gonzalez walked senior center fielder Choyce Chambers on four pitches. That set the stage for Peyton Kingery, who smacked a home run over the centerfield fence on a 2-2 count. Then on an 0-2 count, Aubrielle Ramirez singled to left and scored on a base hit from Mora.
“We had a game plan like we always do, and early on we stuck to it, and it worked,” said Chet Kingery. “For some reason, we ended up getting away from it and then we suffered for not sticking to our game plan.”
“I knew it was going to be a tough game coming into this,” said Van Duyn. “Valley is a good team. They’ve got legit hitters, they’ve got legit defense, and their pitcher keeps you off balanced. She does a great job; she’s quite aggressive. Their catcher is a stud. But Valley has always been a strong squad.”
The V.C. momentum was quickly erased the next inning as Whittier Christian, who improved to 18-9-1 overall and 7-0 in the circuit, scored four runs. The first three batters Zhang faced reached before she hit Cull to allow Marissa Mendoza to score. Zhang then walked to Camacho to bring home Gigi Rodriguez followed by an infield single from Danni Lopez. Cull scored the last run of the inning on a fielder’s choice from Bella Perez.
Perez would smash a one-out, three-run home run in the top of the seventh to complete Whittier Christian’s scoring. But the Defenders weren’t quite done with their scoring as Peyton Kingery hit another three-run home run, plating freshman designated player Jade Jaquez and Chambers. This was the third time this season V.C. scored multiple runs in the seventh inning.
“Their grit, their moxie,” said Chet Kingery on what he liked about the game . “I loved that my team won’t quit; we coach them to never give up. As long as that ball is in the circle, we still have a fighting chance, and they know that. We teach them that, and they live through it. This team won’t give up no matter what, and I know that about them.”
Chambers, Peyton Kingery, Mora and Ireland all had a pair of hits as the Defenders posted at least 10 hits for the fifth straight game and ninth time in the last 10 games.
“I teach aggressive hitting; we want to drive something early in the count,” said Chet Kingery. “So we look for something early in the count to drive because we know these umpires are awful. We look for something over the plate early in the count to hit.”
Meanwhile, the top six batters in Whitter Christian’s lineup combined to go 12 for 25, driving in 14 runs and score a dozen runs. The top four in the lineup of Sofia Hernandez, Cull, Camacho and Lopez entered the game batting anywhere from .397 to .507.
“We’ve been playing some good ball; been hitting the ball well,” said Van Duyn. “Our pitcher was sick for about a week coming into this game and I just told the girls we have to support our pitcher; we’ve got to hit the ball. So, we focused on a lot of hitting.
“Sofia [Gonzalez] struggled throughout the game, which just makes for a better pitcher,” he added. “The strike zone was a little tough for both sides, but it’s good for her to come from being sick and to do what she did.”
V.C. (11-7, 5-1) dropped a 6-5 decision to El Segundo High this past Monday in the final regular season home game for Chambers, Aubrielle Ramirez, Brianna Ramirez, and Peyton Kingery. Those four entered the final regular season game at Maranatha High as the top four, and only everyday players, batting above .400, combining for 115 hits of the 136 hits the team have collected, have driven in 87 of the team’s 139 runs and have hit 11 of the team’s 15 home runs.
“Choyce Chambers in the leadoff spot…fast, gets on base, steals bases for us,” said Chet Kingery. “She does a great job for us in the leadoff spot; I think she’s been in the leadoff spot her whole career here, all four years, and she’s just done a really good job. Then you go to Peyton who not only will kill you line to line, gap to gap, but she also leaves the yard. That’s why she’s in the two hole. And then Aubrielle…if Peyton leaves the yard, Aubrielle comes in as our number three hitter to be another leadoff [hitter]. She’s been here for two years, and she’s done a great job.”
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