Sparrowe, a freshman, flipped a complete game, striking out six along the way, to run her season pitching record to 16-0 and push the Panthers to a 21-0 finish in the West Valley Division.

Prospect, 22-2 overall, will now advance to the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs this week. The Panthers, seeded No. 6, open against No. 11 Redwood Christian (14-6) on May 19, 3 p.m., at Hawes Field in Redwood City. The winner will play No. 3 Capuchino (15-8) on May 21.

Westmont and Saratoga will also open CCS play this week, competing in Division II. The Warriors, the No. 6 seed with a 16-9 record, meet No. 11 North Monterey County (17-7) on May 18, 6 p.m., at the Salinas Sports Complex. The winner will face No. 3 Saratoga (20-5) on May 21 at a site to be determined.

Panthers perfect

Prospect already had a lock on the division championship heading into the game last Friday, but the Panthers needed a win to wrap up their undefeated season. For a short time, that seemed a little shakey.

The clubs matched runs in the first inning, but the Raiders rallied for three in the top of the third to take a 4-1 lead. Prospect answered right back, though, scoring six in the bottom of the inning to go in front 7-4. The Panthers then broke the game open with five in the fourth, and single runs in the fifth and sixth ended the game an inning early on the 10-run rule.

Mandy Taylor starred at the plate for the Panthers with a triple and three singles to knock in two runs, and Liz Miller singled and doubled to drive in three runs in the win.

Paige Madson, Kylie Gipson and Jessica Janssen have been other key players for prospect this year along with Devin Cannon, Katie Clayton and Brittany Utman.

"These girls are solid together," said Prospect head coach John Melvin earlier this season. "The key to our team is that we are complete."

And now the Panthers have completed a perfect league season.

Warriors make CCS

As a result of dropping a 3-2 decision to Santa Teresa early last week, the Westmont baseball team found itself in a must-win situation as it hosted Oak Grove in the final regular season BVAL Mt. Hamilton Division game for both clubs. Westmont needed a win to keep its hopes for a CCS berth alive.

Westmont ace Ryan Magana got the nod and didn't disappoint as he scattered five hits and allowed only three runs to nail down win number 10 on the season against only two losses. He got a little help from Justin Jimenez, who came in to close the door and picked up a save as Westmont squeezed out a 4-3 win.

"It was a well played game with both teams putting the ball in play and good pitching on both side," Westmont coach John Salberg said.

With the win, Westmont completed division play at 13-8 which was good enough for fourth place behind division champ Leigh (17-4) and Leland (14-7) and Santa Teresa (14-7), who tied for second. Although only the top three finishers in the Mt. Hamilton Division are guaranteed CCS berths, the Warriors amassed enough points to qualify for an at-large berth.

Westmont received a No. 13 seed in Division I and will square off against No. 4 Mitty in a 4 p.m. first-round game at Mitty on May 18. If the Warriors advance, they will face the winner of the game between No. 5 Wilcox and No. 12 Santa Teresa in the quarterfinals scheduled for Washington Park in Santa Clara on May 21.

Mitty finished second in the tough West Catholic Athletic League and will present Westmont with some solid challenges, but Salberg has a good perspective on it. "We're looking forward to playing Mitty and are happy to be playing in the CCS playoffs," the coach said.

The Warriors have actually been playing solid baseball, winning nine of their final 12 games with the three losses all being by the score of 3-2. They had their chances but just came up short, unable to get the timely hits in the losses.

A perfect example of this was demonstrated last week in the 3-2 loss to Santa Teresa. Trailing 3-1, the Warriors had the bases loaded with only one out in the fifth inning. They picked up one run on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2 but couldn't get the key hit to pick up more and left the additional runners stranded.

However, in the 4-3 win over Oak Grove it was those elusive key hits that did the trick. Doug Molseed ripped a two-run single in the bottom of the first to give Westmont a 2-1 lead. Brad Davis and D.J. Jackman blasted back-to-back doubles in the third to extend the lead to 4-1. Kelly Peterson also knocked out a pair of hits.

"We feel good about where we are as we go into the playoffs," Salberg said. "What we need most is a good mental approach to avoid making mistakes and put the ball in play that will hopefully result in those timely hits."

Prospect ends with loss

Prospect closed out its season last week by splitting a pair of games. The Panthers opened the week with a solid 8-1 win over Independence with junior Nick Nichols (4-3) picking up the win and Nik Mitchell nailing his first save on the year.

Casey Juull led the offensive effort, hammering out three hits. David Morgan and Nichols added their support by each picking up a pair of hits and a pair of RBIs.

Prospect ran into division champ Pioneer in its final game of the year and suffered an 11-1 defeat at the hands of the Mustangs. The Panthers had trouble finding holes in the Mustang defense and came up with only two hits--a pair of singles by Jerry Rock.

The only run the Panthers were able to push across came in the fifth inning with a little help from the Mustangs. Rock nailed a two-out single, and after a Mustang error and a walk to Morgan the bases were loaded. Nichols was patient at the plate and worked a walk to force in Rock with the only Panther run. Pioneer brought in a relief pitcher who got Juull to ground into a fielder's choice, ending the threat and the inning.

The Panthers had a couple of outstanding defensive plays in the game. Melvin Hutcherson came racing in from his center field position to make a sliding catch that resulted in a double-play to kill a Pioneer rally in the first inning. From his catching position, Nichols also snagged a pop foul in the second by leaning far over the dugout fence to make the grab.

Prospect completed its season at 9-9 (11-12 overall) and in fifth place in the Santa Teresa Division.

Swimming

Hayes Hyde capped a sensational freshman season for the Saratoga girls swimming team by placing at the CCS finals held last weekend at Stanford University's Avery Aquatics Center.

Hyde reached the finals in the 100-yard butterfly and finished sixth in 58.43 in a very fast field.

Nilasha Ghosh of Lynbrook won the event in 54.35, breaking the old CCS record of 54.44 set by Loni Burton of Monta Vista in 1998.

Hyde also notched the ninth-best time in the 100 freestyle in 52.63. Her time was good for a first-place finish in the B-final.

Senior Jessica Douglas tied for second in the B-final of the 100 breaststroke. Her time of 1:09.67 was the 10th-best of the day.

Junior Lisa Chu was seventh in the B-final and 15th overall in the 100 breast in 1:09.94.

Saratoga didn't have a great day as a team at the swimming finals in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, but Hyde, Douglas and Chu placed among the league leaders.

Douglas pulled out a second in the 100 breast in 1:10.24 with teammate Chu third in 1:12.24, and Hyde was third in both the 100 fly in 59.70 and the 200 free in 1:56.87.

Bob Scudder contributed to this story.