EL SEGUNDO - For the second straight season, the Mary Star High softball team started off the El Segundo Tournament with a tough defeat, but then regrouped to win their last three games to take home the consolation championship with a pair of victories at El Segundo Middle School.

In the first game, Mary Star would defeat Hawthorne, 4-3 when sophomore infielder Victoria Vitalich scored the winning run off a bases-loaded walk. Sophomore shortstop Lexie Geich hit an RBI-double in the game for the Stars.

Then in the consolation championship game against Bishop Montgomery of Torrance, a booming two-run home run from sophomore pitcher Marina Vitalich, combined with her eight-strikeout effort, was good enough to power the Stars to a 3-0 win over the Knights to take home the title for the second year in a row. Last year, Mary Star defeated Redondo Union for the consolation crown.

Against Hawthorne, Vitalich was overpowering in the circle with 14 strikeouts for Mary Star (14-8 overall), who has a critical week ahead, needing two victories over visiting Serra of Gardena on Monday, and at Cantwell Sacred-Heart of Montebello on Wednesday to capture an outright third straight Camino Real League title.