Before the 2003 season began, Cabrillo softball coach Mary Beth Stieber/s take on how good her team would be was ….

Well, to be honest, Stieber said, she had no take before the season began as to how good her team would be.

"I had no idea," she said. As it turned out, the Conquistadores did just fine. They finished second in the Los Padres League behind Lompoc and made it to the quarterfinals of the CIF Division IV Playoffs.

Pitcher Keri Cabral helped them get there. She finished the year with a 1.03 earned run average and pitched nearly every game for the 21-7 Conquistadores. Cabrillo finished 10-2 in the LPL. Cabral wound up 19-5.

For their accomplishments, Cabral is the Times/ All-Area Softball Team Most Valuable Player, and Stieber is the Times/ All-Area Coach of the Year.

"It was a mix," of players on Cabrillo/s roster, said Stieber. "We had four freshmen on the team. Three started.

"The freshmen played like veterans. Candice Chotirmal played the entire season at second base. She had 59 chances and made no mistakes."

Cabral/s pitching, however, was a huge reason for Cabrillo/s big season.

"Probably the preparation in summer ball," Cabral gave as the biggest reason she had the season she did. "I pitched a lot during the summer, and it got me ready for (the) season. I played fall ball before the softball season started."

Cabral said she will pitch for Hancock College next season.

Other pitchers on the All-Area team are Ashley McDonough of Lompoc and Jenna Maiden of Righetti. McDonough, the co-MVP of the Los Padres League along with Alyson Funn of Cabrillo, had an ERA of 0.48 as a sophomore this past season.

Maiden/s ERA was 0.86 for Righetti. She had some hard luck extra inning losses.

Funn is on the All-Area Team as an infielder. She hit .382 with 17 runs batted in and is headed to Iona College in New York, a private Division I school, on a combination athletic-academic scholarship.

Other All-Area infielders are Funn/s teammate Mallory Meeder; Valerie de Los Santos of Santa Maria; Caysi Garife of Lompoc; Virginia Vega of St. Joseph; and Natalie Estorga of Righetti.

All-Area outfielders include Jessica Perez of St. Joseph; Chessie Brehm of Arroyo Grande; Julie Ortiz of Santa Maria; and Erica Grigg and Jen Brooks of Lompoc.

The All-Area catcher is Jaimey Klinesmith of St. Joseph. The All-Area utility player and designated hitter are Brittani Datu of VCA and Natalia Martin of Cabrillo respectively.

Cabral had quite a Cabrillo pitching act to follow in the form of Nina Seay. Seay earned All-Area honors and went to the University of California, San Diego.

"I never knew she would be as strong and tough as she was," Stieber said of Cabral. "She didn/t even pitch the year before." There was hardly such a thing as a backup pitcher to Seay during Seay/s senior year.

"My rise ball was my best pitch," said Cabral. Had she been grooming it a lot? "Not really," Cabral said with a laugh. "It just kind of came.

"I jut threw it more and more. It was just, like, my go to pitch when I needed it."

The Conquistadores matched the 2002 Cabrillo squad/s accomplishment of qualifying for the quarterfinals. Stieber/s best season at Cabrillo was her first.

"I took over two weeks into the season, and we made the semis," she said. Stieber completed her seventh season at Cabrillo in 2003.

Going into the 2003 season, "There were so many unknowns - it was hard for me to know," she said.

"We got some surprises hitting. Natalia Martin was brand new to Cabrillo 7 she was home schooled before this. I never thought she would hit as she did."

Martin hit .442 as Cabrillo/s DH. "Natalia was so hot, she had to hit for somebody," Stieber said.

"I didn/t think we would do as good as we did," said Cabral. "It was not like I was surprised, but it didn/t go as I figured it would…"

Funn was a known factor going in 7 she had a strong 2002 season for Cabrillo. Other than that 7 well, Stieber/s team was pretty much a pre-season question mark.

There was Cabral, who had not pitched for Cabrillo before. There was the previously home-school Martin. Then, as Stieber said, there were all those freshmen.

"We had lost three senior starters," said Stieber. She said leadership from seniors such as Cabral and Funn helped fill that void.

Then there were freshmen starters Chotirmal, Brooke Brockett and Amanda Justice. Brockett and Justice played in the outfield, and Brockett was good enough to earn honorable mention All-LPL honors for her season in left field. Justice had a solid season in center.

July 8, 2003